Published Archive
The Importance of Increasing Surgeon Participation in Hospital Leadership
Feb 27, 2019
Publication Description: Research indicates that there is an association between physician leadership and hospital performance.1Hospitals led by physicians have higher US News and World Report (USNWR) quality scores, reduced complication rates, better bed-usage rates, higher physician-satisfaction scores, and financial performance scores that equal those of nonphysician managers.2-4 These findings in the health care sector are in line with new management thinking that organizations led by core-business experts (ie, participants or practitioners in their respective fields) tend to demonstrate better performance.5 A recent article6 suggests that management-led organizations may be lagging because they have not embraced physician input and leadership, thus resulting in resistance to change.
Constructing post-surgical discharge instructions through a Delphi consensus methodology
Scott AR, Sanderson CJ, Rush AJ 3rd, Alore EA, Naik AD, Berger DH, Suliburk JW. Patient Educ Couns. 2018 May;101(5):917-925. doi: 10.1016/j.pec.2017.12.004. Epub 2017 Dec 12. PMID: 29254751
Patient education materials are a crucial part of physician-patient communication. We hypothesize that available discharge instructions are difficult to read and fail to address necessary topics. Our objective is to evaluate readability and content of surgical discharge instructions using thyroidectomy to develop standardized discharge materials.
Sphincter preservation rates after radical resection for rectal cancer in the united states veteran population: opportunity for improvement in early disease
Sep 26, 2014
Publication description: Sphincter preservation (sp) is an important goal of rectal cancer surgery. we hypothesized that sp rates among veteran patients have increased and are comparable to national rates, and that a subset of patients with early disease still undergo non-sp procedures.
The effect of a regional hepatopancreaticobiliary surgical program on clinical volume, quality of cancer care, and outcomes in the veterans affairs system
Sep 11, 2014
Publication description: Malignant neoplasms of the hepatopancreaticobiliary (hpb) system constitute a significant public health problem worldwide. treatment coordination for these tumors is challenging and can result in substandard care. referral centers for hpb disease have been used as a strategy to improve postoperative outcomes, but their effect on accomplishing regionalization of care and improving quality of cancer care is not well known.
Identifying risk factors for surgical site complications after laparoscopic ventral hernia repair: evaluation of the Ventral Hernia Working Group grading system
Apr 28, 2014
Publication description: In 2010, the Ventral Hernia Working Group (VHWG) published a grading system to assess the risk of surgical site complications in patients undergoing ventral hernia repair. This study evaluated the predictive value of the VHWG classification for the surgical outcomes of laparoscopic ventral hernia repair (LVHR) and identified independent factors associated with surgical site infection (SSI) and surgical site occurrence (SSO).