The Department of Surgery at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) is comprised of faculty members that have collectively pledged their commitment to five (5) unique missions and areas of contribution. They include clinical service, surgical education, scholarly activity, business efficiency, and collegiality.
We will provide the highest quality clinical care upon demand in a timely and efficient manner. We are committed as a collective faculty, to the development of cutting-edge programmatic development. As a Department, we have a pride in a culture and value system that always puts the patient first. We recognize referring physicians, both intramural and extramural, as our 2nd greatest priority and respond to them with timely and quality service by "Just Saying Yes" to all reasonable, and even some unreasonable requests. We "Just Say Yes" and assume the care of any patient, with any disease, from anywhere, at anytime, when it is requested and insisted on behalf of a physician who judges himself to be less capable, qualified, or interested. If we are personally unavailable to assume those duties, we respect the wishes of our referring doctors, and personally make arrangements for similarly qualified individuals to assume the requested clinical responsibilities. We recognize that our timely and capable response is an attending responsibility, and even a unique core faculty identity of our departmental standards for quality patient care. We believe this commitment is in the best interest of serving our referring physicians, and in the best interest of our stewardship to the most honorable service to mankind, in meeting the needs of patients.
Our department will develop a better supportive relationship with the Arkansas Chapter of the American College of Surgeons (ACS). We have assumed a leadership role in re-establishing the annual meeting of the ACS. We will establish a monthly newsletter to every board certified surgeon in the state to keep them up to date on recent developments in surgery, and we will use the Arkansas Chapter of the ACS as a vehicle by which this medical school develops and promotes post-graduate education.
We have proceeded to recruit and expand our Vascular Surgery Service. We have recruited Dr. Ahsan Ali to join Drs. Eidt, Moursi and Cruz and aim to expand the total referral through stronger relationships in the statewide surgical community.
We will grow our program in Solid Organ Transplantation as a major priority in coming months. By October 1, 2003, we will aim to finalize the recruitment of a Chief of the Section of Solid Organ Transplantation and implement a program in Liver Transplantation. We anticipate that surgeons in this section will transplant 8-12 livers within 12 months of the recruitment of a liver transplant surgeon and transplant 30 livers within the 30th month after his/her recruitment.
All solid organ transplantation will be consolidated, be it congenital heart, adult heart, pancreas, kidney, or liver, into an integrated transplant program.
The Department of Surgery will expand the Surgical Oncology Section and recruit at least 1 dedicated surgical oncologist during the coming year. This individual will have a significant mission toward scholarly activity and achievement and will be expected to apply for extramural federal funding within 18 months of his/her arrival.
We will endeavor to emphasize research within the Division of Surgical Oncology. Dr. Martin Hauer-Jensen will lead this activity as the sentinel focus of our research relationship with the Arkansas Cancer Research Center (ACRC) in order to make sure that the department enhances its contribution toward federally funded research and the opportunity to achieve NCI designation.
We will respect the research contributions of our colleagues. Certain faculty members will have an inordinate commitment toward the research mission; we will respect this commitment and acknowledge that genuine, and considerable, financial and other rewards are appropriate for those individuals that achieve significant scholarly milestones. Surgery faculty members will be measured by their track record of extramural funding from various federal agencies, including the NIH. The faculty will also be measured by the number, and perhaps more importantly, the quality and impact of their publications.
As collective and individual faculty members of the Department of Surgery, we recognize the importance of our personal commitment to business efficiency. This is increasingly mandated in an era of shrinking profit margins in the health care sector, especially on behalf of hospitals and practice plans. As such, we will commit to the careful selection of patients and the stratification of operative risks according to the best utilization of resources in the best interest of an individual patient. In addition, our faculty, encourages feedback and desires to be measured and ranked according to the accuracy of our submission of charges; the timeliness of our submission of charges; and the efficient utilization of hospital resources. Our faculty encourages feedback and comparison of our individual performance to national standards. We recognize our performance in the context of the bell shaped curves to our partners and sister institutions and will commit, as individuals, to progressive improvement over time. Individual faculty members will not view feedback in this regard as a negative, but rather as an opportunity to improve, and the faculty members will be rewarded by the leadership of the department when substantial progress is made.
We will also work diligently with Administration and employees of the hospital to maximize our effectiveness in utilizing our facilities and resources. We have targeted the ICU as one area for creating a relationship with the hospital and our faculty so that the administrative services of a clinician may be utilized to maximize the throughput of the ICU. Our department will work diligently with the school to insure that the vision of the management of patient flow extends from admission all the way to discharge, and that this "surgical hospital intensivist" will make sure that there is adequate "supply chain" management for efficiency.
We will work diligently with all collaborators to insure, to the greatest extent possible, that we refer to all other departments and contribute toward the successful fulfillment of our sister departmental missions of research, clinical service, and education.
We recognize that we are the only "surgical school house" in a state of over 2.5M people, and we commit to the training of Arkansans to populate this state and provide quality surgical services as well as to become leaders throughout this region.
Our Department of Surgery has renewed our commitment and leadership toward better student and resident education. We seek feedback, and we desire to be measured by the adults that we educate. The measurement we will first use is a simple ranking of the faculty members; this will be presented to each faculty member and this assessment will be required of every rotating student; residents will likewise complete evaluations on a semi-annual basis.
Our faculty values this educational ranking and have agreed to be rewarded according to the perceived "value" of our trainees, as well as by our personal achievement teaching awards, and our general educational obligations and duties.
Our department will strive to improve the town-gown relationship and open up opportunities in training for our residents in the private sector. The residency will be expanded from 4 categorical residents to 7 categorical residents by 2007. The Department of Surgery and the College of Medicine have appointed Dr. Hugh Burnett, Dr. John Jones, and Dr. Everett Tucker as one-eighth clinical obligations at the VA Hospital in order to involve them in our teaching conferences. These local surgical leaders have worked faithfully, as have many others, to facilitate a more collegial and respectful environment for surgical training.
Finally, The Department of Surgery will be cognizant of our leading community members and their perceptions with regard to the College of Medicine and the University at large. The surgery faculty will work in a collegial and faithful manner with the leadership of the university in order to maximize the philanthropy of our most fortunate patients, colleagues, and friends. We will adhere to a considerate and appropriate strategy for approaching such donors, and work through Dr. Kent Westbrook and Administration in this regard.
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