We have awarded Putting the Charter into Practice grants to several organizations that are developing initiatives to advance professionalism among practicing physicians. We worked with the Council of Medical Specialty Societies and a consumer representative to select the following projects for funding:
Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University - Increasing Empathic Behaviors of Staff Physicians through Reflective Writing
The Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine will engage faculty in the principles outlined in the Physician Charter through the use of reflective writing as a vehicle to increase self-awareness, with a focus on improving empathy among practicing physicians. Topic areas covered will include: introduction to reflective writing/narrative medicine as a vehicle to increase empathy; the patient experience of suffering; empathy across cultural barriers; empathic communication of treatment plans; health literacy; and empathy to improve health care quality.
Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center -
Timeouts Facilitated by a Coach: Bringing the Charter to Life in Real-time for Hospitalists
Johns Hopkins Bayview will put the "Charter into Practice" for hospitalist physicians using the "timeout" and the "personal coach." The hospital proposes to train two hospitalists to become Physician Charter/Professionalism Coaches (PCPCs). Through one-on-one and group timeout sessions, the PCPCs will interact with the hospitalists to discuss the applicability of the Charter’s principles to their daily work and review orders and charges of newer hospitalists to encourage commitment to the just distribution of finite resources. In addition, Bayview will create a Physician Charter blog for the coaches to share insights that tie together their clinical work and the Charter.
National Physicians Alliance - Promoting Good Stewardship in Clinical Practice
The National Physicians Alliance (NPA) will address how physicians in internal medicine, pediatrics and family medicine can adhere to the Physician Charter’s commitments to putting the patient’s interests above all else and using limited resources prudently. Through developing a list of “5 Things You Can Do in Your Practice,” the NPA will help physicians, via comparative effectiveness practices, act as good financial stewards and promote the just distribution of finite resources in internal medicine, pediatrics and family medicine. Additionally, the NPA will host a virtual community, where physicians can share how they put the actions on this list into practice. The NPA also will share this list with specialty societies and boards for distribution to their members.
Ohio State University Medical Center, Mt. Carmel Health Systems, and OhioHealth - Putting the Charter into Practice for Central Ohio Physicians
This project represents a collaboration of Mt. Carmel Health System, OhioHealth and Ohio State University Medical Center, which encompass 16 hospitals and outpatient facilities. The investigators plan to: 1) collect stories that describe challenging situations in which physicians successfully demonstrated the values of the profession; 2) analyze those stories to identify themes and sources of success; and 3) share the stories through educational programming. Clips of interviews and summaries will be disseminated in online modules and CD/DVDs for the medical staff and at professional society meetings, where they can serve as triggers for discussion by the physician community.
Society of General Internal Medicine - Communicating about Professionalism: SGIM Regional Workshop
The Society of General Internal Medicine will create a replicable workshop entitled "Communicating about Professionalism" that will address the principles of patient welfare, patient autonomy, and the professional responsibilities of honesty, confidentiality, maintaining appropriate relations with patients, and trust (including managing conflicts of interest). The workshop will feature case-based discussion and skills practice and will use scenarios that portray challenges to these principles. SGIM will post the workshop materials on its website and in its newsletters.
University of Chicago Medical Center -
Improving On-Call Etiquette among Internal Medicine Residents in Chicago: A Multi-Center Collaborative
The study team, consisting of researchers from the University of Chicago Medical Center, Northwestern Memorial Hospital, and NorthShore University Health System, will create video vignettes depicting three types of "unprofessional" interactions related to on-call etiquette , such as blocking an admission, disparaging the ER for missing findings, and misrepresenting a test as urgent to expedite care. These video vignettes will be used in workshops to improve professionalism among practicing internal medicine residents and hospitalist physicians. The workshop materials will be disseminated internally and through professional meetings.