*****
University of Washington School of Medicine
Online News
Vol. 12, No. 28
July 11, 2008
*****
To view an archived version of Online News on the UW
Medicine Web site, visit:
http://www.uwmedicine.org/Global/NewsAndEvents/somnews/index.htm
*****
This week’s news:
* UW Medical Center ranks 10th in U.S. News Media Group’s 2008 edition of America’s Best Hospitals
* Several UW faculty members honored for clinical teaching and service
* U-DOC program for minority and disadvantaged high school students featured in Olympic Peninsula newspaper
* UW Medical Center honored for environmental stewardship
* Abraham Bergman, professor emeritus of pediatrics and chief of pediatrics at Harborview, to receive Scribner Courage in Health Care Award
*****
UWMC RANKED TENTH IN U.S.NEWS BEST HOSPITAL RANKINGS
University of Washington Medical Center (UWMC) has ranked 10th in U.S. News & World Report’s 2008 publication of America’s Best Hospitals, moving up from its 2007 ranking of 11th best hospital in the country. UWMC ties with Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia for this year’s No. 10 spot. The 2008 edition is accessible today online at http://www.usnews.com/besthospitals and on sale at newsstands Monday, July 14.
UW Medical Center has been rated among the top U.S. hospitals since U.S. News began rankings in 1990. Of the 5,453 hospitals considered for this year's survey, just 170 scored high enough to be ranked in any specialty area. UW Medical Center was among only 19 hospitals ranked as part of the 2008 Honor Roll of hospitals, which demonstrated exceptional breadth of excellence and achieved high scores in six or more specialties.
Several programs at UWMC were ranked highly including: rehabilitation (2), (based at UWMC and Harborview Medical Center); cancer (6); gynecology (11); orthopedics (13); geriatrics (13); ear, nose and throat (13); respiratory disorders (16); kidney disease (16); gastrointestinal disorders (20); neurology/neurosurgery (22), (based at Harborview and UWMC); endocrinology (24); and urology (34). Harborview, which is owned by King County and operated by the University of Washington, ranked 27th in orthopedics.
For 12 of the 16 specialties ranked, U.S. News evaluated hospitals by weighing three elements equally: reputation, death rate, and a set of care-related factors such as nursing and patient services. In the other four specialties -- ophthalmology, psychiatry, rehabilitation and rheumatology -- rankings were based solely on a reputational survey of physicians.
Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center in Seattle was recently ranked near the top of the U.S. News ratings for children's hospitals. The hospital moved up one spot from last year to the No. 8 spot in the country, and has been listed among the leading children's hospitals for 16 straight years. Those rankings, which were released May 30, are available online at:
http://health.usnews.com/sections/health/best-childrens-hospitals/index.html
*****
UW FACULTY MEMBERS HONORED FOR CLINICAL TEACHING AND SERVICE
Several UW faculty members have been honored recently for their outstanding clinical teaching and service.
Jan Hirschmann, professor of medicine in the Division of General Internal Medicine, has received the Department of Medicine Marvin Turck Outstanding Teaching Award, in honor of excellence in teaching and patient care. The award commemorates Turck, a faculty member since 1964 who has himself been much recognized for his teaching, clinical work, and scholarship. Hirschmann, a past recipient of the Paul B. Beeson Teaching Award and the UW School of Medicine Distinguished Alumni Award, has been a faculty member at the VA Puget Sound Health Care System since 1976. A member of the UW School of Medicine class of 1970, he completed residency at Beth Israel in Boston and fellowships in infectious diseases, pulmonary medicine, and dermatology, as well as a diploma of clinical neurology. He is known for his wide range of interests and expertise, as well as his skill and innovation in clinical teaching.
Paul Pottinger and Caroline Rhoads have received the Paul B. Beeson Award for 2008. They were chosen by the medicine residents in recognition of outstanding clinical teaching and for exemplifying scholarliness, humility, compassion, and integrity. Beeson, who was a Distinguished Physician at the Seattle VA in the 1970s, was celebrated for his teaching skills.
Pottinger is an assistant professor of medicine in the Division of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and director of the UWMC Antimicrobial Stewardship Program. He is a graduate of Harvard College and Yale School of Medicine and is a former fellow in the lab of UW infectious disease researcher Wes Van Voorhis. Pottinger studies phosphodiesterase function and activity in plasmodium falciparum, the malaria parasite. He teaches students, residents, and fellows, has lectured on a wide range of topics in infectious disease, and serves an attending physician in the Tropical Medicine and Infectious Disease clinics.
Rhoads is an associate professor of medicine in the Division of General Internal Medicine and associate director of the Adult Medicine Clinic at Harborview, where she sees patients and serves as coordinator of clinical education and training. A graduate of Stanford and the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, she trained in the Boise Primary Care Internist Program and was chief resident at the Boise VA before joining the faculty. She is a graduate of the UW Teaching Scholars Program and has served as attending physician, lecturer, tutor, mentor, and preceptor for students and residents, as well as teaching RNs and ARNPs.
Joyce Wipf, professor of medicine in the Division of General Internal Medicine and director of the Women’s Program for the VA Puget Sound Health Care System, is the recipient of this year’s Robert G. Petersdorf Seattle VA Teaching Award. The Petersdorf award is named after the late physician and administrator who led tremendous growth of the Department of Medicine in the 1960s and 70s and became a national leader in academic medicine. It recognizes outstanding teaching and service to students, residents, fellows, nurses, and staff at the VA.
Wipf, a graduate of the University of Minnesota Medical School, served for more than a decade as associate director of the Department of Medicine Residency Training Program, where she also trained as a resident. She also directed the VA Resident Ambulatory Training Program from 1991 to 1995. A fellow of the American College of Physicians, she received the 1994 Attending of the Year Award from UW Medicine residents and fellows and the UW Innovation in Teaching Award of 1992 for her development of the resident teaching course.
*****
U-DOC PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTED IN PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
The UW School of Medicine's U-DOC program, a summer program for high school students interested in medical careers, was featured recently in the Peninsula Daily News, a newspaper on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington. The story focused on 20 students from around western Washington who toured Olympic Medical Center in Port Angeles. A PDF copy of the article is available here:
http://tinyurl.com/68bona
The U-DOC program provides enrichment and mentoring for students with a disadvantaged background or those from communities and groups that are underrepresented in the medical field. It is managed by the School of Medicine's Office of Multicultural Affairs. This year's program started last month and concludes this week. For more information, visit:
http://depts.washington.edu/omca/leadership/UDOC.html
*****
UW MEDICAL CENTER HONORED FOR ENVIRONMENTAL LEADERSHIP
UW Medical Center's Tim Nguyen, manager of Waste Operations, and Sheila Lockwood, Environmental Health and Safety, recently accepted UWMC's second consecutive Environmental Leadership Award from Practice Greenhealth. The award is the most prestigious presented in the realm of health-care environmental leadership.
Practice Greenhealth was previously known as Hospitals for a Healthy Environment or H2E, a group founded by the American Hospital Association, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Health Care Without Harm, and the American Nurses Association. The organization presented awards to 141 hospitals and health systems for outstanding achievements in reducing waste, eliminating mercury, and improving environmental performance. Only 25 of those organizations are part of the Environmental Leadership Circle, the highest honor given by Practice Greenhealth.
The medical center's environmental work has been a group effort, UWMC leaders said, and the awards serve as a tribute to all staff who have created a culture of environmental stewardship at the facility. The medical center's efforts also align with the UW Environmental Stewardship program, led by President Mark Emmert.
As part of ongoing green efforts, UWMC recently implemented a program that reprocesses costly surgical instruments and avoids disposal costs. Savings through the program can run as high as 55 percent, compared with buying new instruments and throwing out old ones. The medical center also plans to implement additional food and compost recycling soon.
More information about the award is available at the Practice Greenhealth Web site:
http://www.h2e-online.org
*****
BERGMAN WILL RECEIVE SCRIBNER COURAGE IN HEALTH CARE AWARD THIS FALL
Abraham Bergman, UW professor emeritus of pediatrics and chief of pediatrics at Harborview, has been selected as the recipient of the 2008 Scribner Courage in Health Care Award by First Choice Health and the Washington Academy of Family Physicians. The award recognizes Bergman’s enormous contributions to the health and welfare of American children, especially to children in the Northwest.
The award will be presented at a reception from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., Wednesday, Sept. 24, at the McCormick & Schmick’s restaurant at 1200 Westlake Ave., Seattle. Tickets are $75. For more information, contact Marcie Wirtz, Northwest Kidney Centers, at 206-292-2771, ext. 1107, or wirtzm@nwkidney.org
Renowned author and physician Nassim Assefi will be the keynote speaker at the reception. Assefi, a UW clinical instructor of medicine and of obstetrics and gynecology, is a global women's health specialist and novelist. A graduate of the UW School of Medicine and former attending physician at the Harborview Women's Clinic, Assefi left her medical career in Seattle in 2003 to be a humanitarian aid worker in war-torn Afghanistan, where she helped rebuild women's health care. She will speak on Courage in Adversity: Responding to the Public Health Impact of War – Stories from Afghanistan and the Middle East.
The Scribner Courage in Health Care Award is named in honor of the kidney dialysis pioneer and bioethicist Belding Scribner. The award is given to health-care professionals who have made an extraordinary contribution to the health of people in the Northwest through exhibition of personal courage. For more information, visit:
http://tinyurl.com/6m3568
*****
Justin Reedy, editor:
206-685-0382, jreedy@u.washington.edu
Online News is copyright 2008. All rights, including electronic
redistribution, are reserved.
*****