VOLUNTEERS OF AMERICA – GREATER NEW YORK
POSITION TITLE: Psychiatrist
POSITION CODE FROM HR: xxx761
FLSA STATUS: Exempt
CONTACT: Gerard Serpico, HR Manager, gserpico@voa-gny.org

The Psychiatrist is responsible for the completion of mental health status reports necessary for placement of clients in hospitals, community-based programs and residential settings. He/she may provide other assistance appropriate to his/her education and experience.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS:

A license to practice medicine in the State of New York, board certification or eligibility in psychiatry and a minimum of five years of clinical experience.

PRINCIPAL RESPONSIBILITIES:

1. Perform mental status reports on clients as needed.
2. Assist in the development of client-specific treatment plans, including prescriptions, as appropriate.
3. Serve as a consulting resource to other staff.
4. Conduct in-service training for clinical and direct care staff.
5. Perform other related duties as required.

EFFECT ON END RESULTS:

1. All necessary psychiatric evaluations are performed in a timely fashion.
2. The psychiatric needs of the client population are adequately assessed and appropriate treatment plans are developed and implemented.
3. Staff is knowledgeable of and sensitive to the psychiatric needs of the client population.
4. Staff are appropriately trained.
5. Related duties are performed completely, accurately and on time.

Dean David Nash, Jefferson School of Population Health

I’m very pleased to announce that we are offering CIR members a discounted corporate rate for our online Masters programs in Healthcare Quality and Safety, Health Policy, and Applied Health Economics and Outcomes Research. The special corporate rate also applies to our Certificate programs in these areas and to our new Certificate in Population Health, a special program geared to the physician leader of the 21st century!

Online degree programs offered through the Jefferson School of Population Health are taught by experienced practitioners from all areas of the healthcare industry and connect students with colleagues from all over the country who bring a wealth of experience to the online classroom. Although structured around weekly schedules, our courses are entirely asynchronous, so you can participate anytime and from anywhere during the week. They are an ideal way to enhance your knowledge, obtain meaningful skills, and acquire new credentials for the changing healthcare market while completing clinical training.

The more than 550 resident physicians at the University of New Mexico Hospital are the lifeblood of the hospital and the first line of contact for most of the patients who come in for treatment. With over 90,000 ER visits and over 27,000 admissions a year, they have little down time. Add to that keeping up with the latest medical knowledge, studying for board exams, and planning their careers – it’s no small undertaking.

Despite all these demands, a large number of residents have trained their sights on ways to make patient care safer and more efficient.  Those initiatives, called Quality Improvement (QI) projects, were written up in the University Of New Mexico Journal of Quality Improvement In Healthcare, published in May 2013. The journal was the brainchild of members of the Committee of Interns and Residents (CIR), the union representing UNM residents. It’s the first publication of its kind – a resident-produced journal devoted to Quality Improvement projects.

“Residency offers very little in the way of formal training on the skills needed to prevent harm to our patients or on how to deliver the best possible care. Up to 98,000 patients die every year in the United States due to systems failures, lack of training on practical skills and inadequate patient safety protocols,” wrote Dr. Jimmy Heilman, an Emergency Medicine resident and editor of the journal, in his introduction. “[This journal] showcases the ways residents have used their energy and time to make the UNMH healthcare system more patient-centered, efficient and safe.”

The journal presents 15 QI projects, overwhelmingly developed by resident physicians. Pharmacy residents also participated in the journal, submitting a case study of a project designed to reduce medication errors during transitions of care.

One resident-led initiative sought to improve the patient handoff process in the Emergency Department. Nationally, an estimated 80% of all serious medical error events arise from communication breakdowns between caregivers during handoffs. By standardizing the procedure and educating residents, the residents were able to improve communication and coordination.

Other projects published in the journal aimed to improve patient satisfaction and reduce wait times at UNM GI/Endoscopy and reduce the number of ER patients who “bounce back” within 72 hours of being treated.

“The future of our health care system is in the hands of our trainees. We hope that we are training physicians who are capable of going forward with their careers literate in the language of quality improvement, capable of contributing and leading to process improvement initiatives, and driven by need to improve the health care systems in which they work.” wrote Dr. Betty Chang, Associate Dean for Graduate Medical Education at the University of New Mexico.

 A PDF of the journal can be found at www.cirseiu.org/unmjournal

Scholars awarded the new James C. Puffer, M.D./American Board of Family Medicine Fellowship will assist in the work of an IOM study committee or roundtable for a two-year period.  In addition, fellows will be invited to IOM’s annual meeting and will take part in a weeklong policy-intensive orientation in Washington, D.C. These activities will introduce the fellows to a variety of perspectives, including those of legislators, government officials, industry, patient interest groups, scientists, and health professionals.

Applications are due June 1. More information is available on the Institute of Medicine website. 

UNM Journal of Quality Improvement in Healthcare, 2nd edition

For the second year, CIR members at the University of New Mexico published a Journal of Quality Improvement, highlighting 15  completed and in-progress QI projects, as well as commentaries from the Vice Chair for Quality and Compliance and the assistant Dean for GME. 

The featured QI projects were overwhelmingly developed by resident physicians, with contributions from eight different departments, as well as pharmacy residents. 

 Download the journal

Online Degree Programs:

Master of Science in Healthcare Quality & Safety (MS-HQS)
Master of Science in Health Policy (MS-HP)
Master of Science in Applied Health Economics and Outcomes Research (MS-AHEOR)

Online Certificate Programs:

Graduate Certificate in Health Policy
Graduate Certificate in Healthcare Quality & Safety

CIR members will receive 15% off the regular per credit tuition rate. If a minimum number of members enroll, the discount will be even greater. The regular per credit tuition rate for the current academic year is $957.

For degree programs which require 39 credits, this amounts to a total savings of approximately $5,500. For certificate programs which require 18 credits, this amounts to a total savings of approximately $2,500. Housestaff may access different CIR negotiated benefits to pay for part of the tuition costs associated with enrolling in either a degree or certificate program. Please find your hospital’s benefits page and check your CIR contract to determine whether additional education funds are available.

A number of theoretical frameworks will be used for investigating, evaluating, and discussing health disparities research, and these will address policy and evidence-based practices. Social determinants of health and related conditions within selected health disparity populations will be discussed. The course will also focus on integration of various disciplines (including biological, social, behavioral, physical, and environmental sciences, and law and economics) to understand science, practice, and policy issues. Classes will begin with lectures from nationally and internationally recognized experts from diverse disciplines. Lectures will be followed by panel discussions to explore the module content with some degree of analytic objectivity. Questions and issues that are most relevant to select communities or populations will be chosen by course participants for debate. At the end of the course, each participant may elect to formulate a work plan for innovative health disparities activities in his/her chosen area.

Target Audience

• Health care/public health professionals
• Public policy professionals
• Academic Researchers
• Members of community-based and faith-based organizations
• Scientists engaged in health disparities research and activities

Application Deadline: Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Session Dates: August 5 – August 16, 2013 [8:30am - 5pm, daily]

Location: NIH Campus, Bethesda, MD

How to Apply: To submit an application CLICK HERE. (Applications will only be accepted on-line.)

Application Submission Period: March 15 – May 15, 2013

By Michael Kantrowitz, DO (Guest Author and Chief Resident, Maimonides Medical Center)

It seems that there are a growing number of residents out there who are.

This past weekend, the Committee of Interns and Residents (CIR) hosted an event called “What’s Your QI IQ? Resident Physicians as Quality Improvement Leaders” in New York City. The program was developed as a partnership between the CIR Policy and Education Initiative and the Healthcare Transformation Project of Cornell University.

The day kicked off with introductions by Dr. Svjetlana Lozo, an ob/gyn resident from Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn and Dr. Rick Gustave, an emergency medicine resident at Lincoln Hospital in the Bronx. They described the push towards improved quality, safety, and transparency in medical practice and the central role that residents are beginning to play in leading that charge. Next up was Dr. James Pelegano who is an assistant professor and director of the master’s program in healthcare quality and safety at the Jefferson School of Population Health. Dr. Pelegano discussed his own experience in quality improvement in practice as a neonatologist. He then led us in a root cause analysis exercise using the recent death of Rory Staunton, a pediatric patient who succumbed to sepsis as case example.

Breaking into small groups, we were asked to take on various roles of the multidisciplinary team members who were involved to try to identify the contributing factors that led to the delayed recognition of Rory’s ultimately fatal illness. Many residents had never participated in a root cause analysis before, which sparked much discussion over the clinical and communication issues that could be improved. Dr. Pelegano challenged us to think like a hospital’s administration and find a process improvement that could be implemented within two days. He also discussed tools such as flow charts, Ishikawa diagrams, and PDSA cycles which we could add to our arsenal.

We then heard from three residents at CIR represented hospitals who discussed projects they have worked on at their institutions.

• Dr. Constance Liu, an ob/gyn resident at Boston Medical Center, discussed efforts to improve resident education and adverse event reporting. Residents at her hospital have received a grant for this work.
• Dr. Sepideh Sedgh, a pulmonary/critical care fellow, described the work that residents at Maimonides Medical Center have done as part of a joint quality partnership between CIR and the administration. Residents, including myself, took on the task of significantly improving the medication reconciliation process to make patient discharges safer
• Finally Dr. Say Salomon an internal medicine resident from Woodhull Medical Center explained how their House Staff Safety Council has been enhancing patient care. One project he talked about was a resident-led program to reduce heart failure readmissions through better patient education.

The day ended with an interactive discussion run by Jennifer Weiss, a public health consultant with SAE & Associates. She led a workshop on developing and writing quality improvement and patient safety grant proposals using our own ideas for projects. I plan on using these skills as I look to find funding for future projects of my own.

It’s safe to say that we all left with a boost to our QI IQ and I’m looking forward to more events like this, which will train and challenge our generation of physicians to improve quality and safety.