Wayne County Medical Society of Southeast Michigan

September 29, 2008

Editor's Column: Reform
WSUSOM Honors 'Pioneers'
St. Joseph Mercy Oakland Honors Dr. Silbergleit
Henry Ford Hospital Names New Women's Health Chair
Karmanos-Crittenton Cancer Center Slated For 2009
Industry Group Lauds Six Michigan Hospitals
Nursing Group Kicks Off Inaugural Convention With Diversity Message
Survey: Public Calls For New Direction For US Health System

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Editor's Column: Reform

By JOSEPH WEISS, MD
Polls of politicians, the public, large employers, health care policy makers and physicians are in harmony in this: all agree that the country needs health care reform.

On Capitol Hill reform means (1) changes in the way the government delivers health care that will bring more efficiency, less fraud, and better preventive care; and (2) determining who should pay for it.

To the public, reform means having the government do more to assure that health care is available to everyone but not with more taxes, not with loss of personal choice, not borrowing the health care schemes of other countries and not imposing restrictions on new or innovative treatments that might help treat illness.

To large employers such as IBM, General Electric, Boeing and Microsoft, reform means an end to rising costs and relief in addressing retirement benefits.

To policy makers, health care reform means changing American health from near the worst on world charts of developed countries to the best, conquering the expenses of chronic care, controlling spiraling costs through computer-generated models and reforms vetted by evidence-based data.

To physicians, health care reform includes many of the elements already noted, but also must include a better way to reimburse physicians for their efforts.

The result of the presidential election is not likely to give a clear mandate for any change. To obtain their aims in health reform, physicians will need to make alliances with groups representing the public such as the AARP and employers, which in this state means companies that make Crain’s Detroit Business’ list of the 25 largest corporations in Michigan.

We will need to recognize that the public and politicians are responding to needs not based on reason and facts, but on feelings and perceptions. We should approach medical care reform in the same manner that we would use to nurse a chronically ill patient back to health.

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WSUSOM Honors 'Pioneers'

The Wayne State University School of Medicine will honor two medical pioneers while celebrating with a masquerade gala at one of the most sought-after Detroit venues.

The theme for this year’s awards gala is “A Night Behind the Mask.” The black-tie masquerade will take place at the Detroit Institute of Arts on Oct. 11. The fundraiser, which supports student scholarships at the School of Medicine, begins at 6 p.m. with cocktails, followed by dinner and dancing.

Herbert C. Smitherman Jr., MD, and Robert R. Frank, MD, will be recognized for their contributions to the school, the community and to medicine.

Dr. Smitherman will receive the Trailblazer Award. The award recognizes outstanding alumni and faculty, both rising stars and pathfinders, who have made substantial contributions, demonstrated courage, initiative, innovation, risk-taking and leadership.

Dr. Smitherman is assistant dean of Community and Urban Health and assistant professor of Internal Medicine and Karmanos Cancer Institute, Wayne State University School of Medicine. He is also president and CEO of Health Centers Detroit Medical Group, a Federally Qualified Health Center in the city of Detroit. His research focuses primarily on health issues related to under-represented populations of color and access to care.

Dr. Smitherman has spent the past 21 years working with diverse communities in Detroit to develop urban-based primary-care delivery systems that integrate the health and social goals and concerns of the community. He has been successful establishing and working with best-practice models that have community participation and collaboration as the key element in creating sustainable primary care programs. Early results suggest that generating a sense of community ownership may lead to healthier communities overall.

Dr. Frank will receive the Ambassador Award, which honors individuals and corporations who, through their deeds, epitomize the spirit of Wayne State University and the School of Medicine. This spirit represents world-class vision, leadership and progress demonstrated through outstanding service, commitment to the school’s teaching and research missions, and dedication to the city and the community.

Dr. Frank serves as professor of Medicine and executive vice dean. He has been a member of the faculty since 1977.

As executive vice dean, Dr. Frank has been primarily responsible for shaping a comprehensive medical curriculum. He has made social responsibility an intrinsic component of medical education, bringing an important and appropriate balance to the medical student experience. He has incorporated subjects such as doctor-patient communication, end-of-life care, geriatric medicine, palliative care, environmental health exposure and understanding cultural differences into the school curriculum.

Dr. Frank’s major clinical interests are in geriatrics and end-of-life care. He was the chief of Medicine at Detroit Receiving Hospital from 1983 to 1985. He co-founded the Palliative Care Service at Detroit Receiving Hospital.

Dr. Frank has been active in university and School of Medicine administrative and academic initiatives, and spearheads the fund drive for the construction of the Richard J. Mazurek, MD, Medical Education Commons, a new building that will greatly enhance the medical school’s ability to recruit top-caliber students and ensure them an unparalleled education.

He is a member of Physicians for Social Responsibility and is a strong advocate for often-forgotten patient groups like the elderly and the indigent. He was the geriatrician in charge of the St. Pat’s Senior Center Medical Clinic in Detroit for 20 years. He has twice been a finalist for the Association of American Medical College’s Humanism in Medicine Award and Crain’s Detroit Business named him a “Health Care Hero” in 2003.

Attendees must RSVP for the event by Oct. 1. For more information, call (313) 577-3465 or visit http://www.gala.med.wayne.edu.

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St. Joseph Mercy Oakland Honors Dr. Silbergleit

St. Joseph Mercy Oakland (SJMO) will host its 51^st Annual Allen Silbergleit, MD Clinic Day on Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2008 in the Anthony M. Franco Communications Center on the SJMO campus.

This year’s topic is “Frontiers in Cancer Care,” with presentations on some of the most exciting advances in medicine and surgery given by five distinguished visiting professors. Staff and resident physicians attending this program will enhance their knowledge of recent developments in state-of-the-art cancer care. The program begins at 7:30 a.m. with registration and continental breakfast and concludes with a luncheon and a discussion with speakers at 12:30 p.m.

“Clinic Day has always been the flagship program of the academic year at SJMO,” said Allen Silbergleit, MD, program director emeritus, Department of General Surgery, and chair, Division of General Surgery. He also is the Cancer Liaison Physician for the Commission on Cancer.

In 2005, SJMO renamed the annual Clinic Day program in honor of Dr. Silbergleit, long-serving chair of the Clinic Day committee and 40-year tenure director of the Surgery Residency program. For his accomplishments in graduate medical education, Dr. Silbergleit was awarded the Parker J. Palmer Courage to Teach Award of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education.

Speakers at this year’s Clinic Day and their topics are:

·Antoinette J. Wozniak, MD, professor, Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Hematology and Oncology, Wayne State University School of Medicine and Karmanos Cancer Institute, “Current Lung Cancer Treatment”;

·Alfred E. Chang, MD, Hugh Cabot Professor of Surgery, chief, Division of Surgical Oncology, University of Michigan Cancer Center, “Surgical Oncology—Melanoma”;

·R. Kevin Reynolds, MD, The George W. Morley Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, chief, Division of Gynecologic Oncology, University of Michigan Health System, “Gynecologic Cancer Prevention and Screening”;

·Jeffrey D. Forman, MD, Hartmann Professor of Radiation Oncology, Wayne State University School of Medicine, “Radiation Oncology Update”; and

·Axel Grothey, MD, professor of Oncology, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, “Targeted Therapies in Cancer Treatment.”

SJMO hosts include Dr. Usman Master, Dr. Silbergleit, Dr. Stan Dorfman, Dr. Judie Goodman, Dr. Jeff Yanez, Dr. Benjamin Diaczok and Debra Reid.

The annual Clinic Day is supported in part by the Helen Castle Booster Fund.

St. Joseph Mercy Oakland is accredited by the Michigan State Medical Society Committee on Continuing Medical Education Accreditation. This activity meets the criteria for four credit hours in Category 1 toward the requirements for Michigan relicensure and of the Physician’s Recognition Award of the American Medical Association.

For more information, call Debra Reid of the SJMO Department of Surgery, (248) 858-3234.

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Henry Ford Hospital Names New Women's Health Chair

Adnan Munkarah, MD, a specialist in gynecologic cancer including ovarian and uterine cancer, has been named chair of the Department of Gynecology, Obstetrics and Women's Health for the Henry Ford Medical Group and the Hospital and Health Network. Dr. Munkarah is clinical professor at Wayne State School of Medicine and is well known throughout Michigan for his expertise in the subspecialty of gynecologic oncology which includes treatment for tumors in the ovary, uterus, vagina and vulva.

Educated at the American University of Beirut, Dr. Munkarah trained in both internal medicine, and obstetrics and gynecology at the Detroit Medical Center. After completing his oncology fellowship at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, he returned to Detroit where he directed the division of gynecologic oncology at Wayne State School of Medicine and Hutzel Women’s Hospital and also served in leadership roles at Karmanos Cancer Center.

Most recently, Dr. Munkarah has been on leave from Wayne State to serve as the director of obstetrics and gynecology at King Faisal Hospital in Saudi Arabia. At Wayne State he won teaching awards and is listed among “Best Doctors in America”. He has maintained a strong interest in research and has an impressive record of both peer reviewed publications and invited lectureships here and abroad. Dr. Munkarah assumes the leadership role from former chair, Ronald Strickler, MD, who provided leadership of the department for more than a decade. Dr. Strickler will continue his role as director of reproductive endocrinology at Henry Ford Hospital and Medical Center, a field in which he is a national expert.

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Karmanos-Crittenton Cancer Center Slated For 2009

Two large medical institutions are expanding their partnership to widen the reach of their cancer care services. The Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Center and Crittenton Hospital Medical Center, which began their affiliation in 2003, celebrated the groundbreaking of their new joint venture, the Karmanos-Crittenton Cancer Center. The center will be dedicated in memory of Vivian V. Stolaruk, the late wife of Steve Stolaruk who donated the three-acre site for the new cancer center. The new facility located at 1901 Star Batt Road, just east of Crooks, in Rochester Hills, will be approximately 30,000 square feet and offer radiation oncology, chemotherapy, imaging services, physician visits and laboratory services. It is estimated that the new cancer center will open late 2009.

The new center is expected to cost $16 million and will offer radiation oncology, chemotherapy, imaging services, physician visits and laboratory services.

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Industry Group Lauds Six Michigan Hospitals

Twenty-six hospitals and seven children’s hospitals have been named 2008 Top Hospitals, based on results of the Leapfrog Hospital Survey. The survey is the nation’s premier hospital patient safety evaluation tool and provides consumers and health care purchasers with up-to-date assessments of 1,220 participating hospitals’ quality and safety at its website, www.leapfroggroup.org .

Michigan hospitals that made the list are:

• Detroit Receiving Hospital & University Health Center; Detroit, MI

• Harper-Hutzel Hospital, Detroit; MI

• Henry Ford Macomb Hospitals, Clinton Township; MI

• Saint Mary's Health Care, Grand Rapids; MI

• Sinai-Grace Hospital; Detroit, MI

• University of Michigan Hospitals & Health Centers; Ann Arbor, MI

Results for all hospitals participating in the 2008 can be found at www.leapfroggroup.org .

The voluntary survey provides a picture of hospital quality and safety in the United States and asks hospitals about their performance in four crucial areas, or “leaps”:

• Do physicians enter prescriptions and other orders into computers linked to medication error-prevention software? And are those systems tested to assure that users are warned about serious prescribing errors?

• How well do hospitals perform seven complex high-risk procedures and care for high-risk deliveries? (Coronary artery bypass graft, percutaneous coronary intervention, abdominal aortic aneurysm repair, aortic valve replacement, pancreatic resection, esophagectomy, bariatric surgery.)

• Are hospital intensive care units (ICUs) staffed by qualified specialists?

• Do hospitals have safety practices and policies advocated by the National Quality Forum to reduce harm and errors?

Top Hospitals in 2008:

• Fully meet Leapfrog standards for not only implementing computer physician order entry (CPOE) systems that help prevent medication errors, but have also carefully tested their CPOE systems with Leapfrog’s CPOE Evaluation Tool;

• Fully meet stringent performance standards for at least one of the complex, high-risk procedures (such as heart bypass surgery) done in that particular hospital;

• Fully meet the ICU staffing standard;

• Fully meet or demonstrate “substantial progress” on 13 additional nationally recognized safe practices, such as preventing pneumonia or bloodstream infections.

In addition to the four “leaps”, the Leapfrog Hospital Survey asks hospitals to report progress on other important patient safety areas:

• Participating in other public reporting initiatives;

• Adhering to the Leapfrog “Never Events” policy;

• Measuring how efficiently resources are used for coronary artery bypass graft (CABG), percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI), acute myocardial infarction (AMI), and pneumonia;

• Helping patients avoid pressure ulcers and other hospital-related injuries.

A study published in the June issue of the Journal on Quality and Patient Safety found that hospitals that perform well on the Leapfrog Hospital Survey have lower mortality and better quality of care than those who either didn’t perform as well on the survey or who chose not to complete the survey.

The Leapfrog Group was founded in November 2000 by the Business Roundtable and is supported by its members, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, The Commonwealth Fund, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and other sources.

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Nursing Group Kicks Off Inaugural Convention With Diversity Message

The National American Arab Nurses Association (NAANA) Inaugural Convention will feature the theme: "Building Cultural Bridges in Healthcare: Strength in Diversity" Thursday and Friday, October 9 & 10, 2008, at the Detroit Marriott at the Renaissance Center.

This is an outstanding and affordable professional development opportunity created for ALL health professionals with six keynote speakers, many internationally renowned, according the group’s spokesperson. There will be 20 concurrent sessions over two days on topics ranging from health care in culturally diverse communities to organ donation among minorities. CEUs, CMEs and Contact Hours will be offered. Representatives of the Republican and Democratic presidential candidates are expected to share their candidates’ proposed health care policies.

Convention attendees are also invited at no charge to attend "Health Coverage in America: Understanding the Issues and Proposed Solutions," a Health Summit on Thursday, October 9. The Health Summit will feature Henry J. Aaron, Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution, Nancy Schlichting, Chair of the Michigan Health & Hospital Association and CEO, Henry Ford Health System, and Marianne Udow-Philips, Director, Center for Healthcare Research and Transformation. The discussion will be moderated by Dzwonkowski, Editorial Page Editor, Detroit Free Press. This will be a sit down dinner beginning at 6:30 pm followed by an hour-long program. Seating is limited.

Registering is easy. Just go to www.n-aana.org and you'll find an on-line registration form as well as the entire exciting Convention Agenda.

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Survey: Public Calls For New Direction For US Health System

On behalf of The Commonwealth Fund Commission on a High Performance Health System, Harris Interactive surveyed a random sample of 1,004 U.S. adults (age 18 and older) to determine their experiences and perspectives on the organization of the nation's health care system and ways to improve patient care. Eight of 10 respondents agreed that the health system needs either fundamental change or complete rebuilding. Adults' health care experiences underscore the need to organize care systems to ensure timely access, better coordination, and better flow of information among doctors and patients. There is also a need to simplify health insurance administration. There was broad agreement among survey respondents that wider use of health information systems and greater care coordination could improve patient care. The majority of adults say it is very important for the 2008 presidential candidates to seek reforms to address health care quality, access, and costs.

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