Volume 35 Number 4 | Stony Brook, NY | < April 2021 > |
SOAP Center of Excellence
Tiffany E. Angelo, DO I am thrilled to share the news that we have been accepted as a Center of Excellence by the Society of Obstetric Anesthesia and Perinatology. Our group has been striving over the past year to make the necessary changes in order to attain this exciting new level of care. The SOAP Center of Excellence (COE) designation was created to recognize institutions and programs that demonstrate excellence in obstetric anesthesia care and to set a benchmark of expected care to improve standards nationally and internationally. It is an annual program, with new designees announced each spring. The criteria cover all aspects of obstetric anesthesia care and include: personnel and staffing; equipment, protocols, and policies; simulation and team training; obstetric emergency management; cesarean delivery and labor analgesia care; recommendations and guidelines implementation; and quality assurance and patient follow-up systems. I commend our wonderful group of anesthesiologists, residents, and nurses who all made the necessary changes needed to help improve patient safety and gain this wonderful recognition. |
Kudos
Jun Lin, MD, PhD completed the Harvard Medical School High Impact Cancer Research postgraduate certificate program. It is a yearlong intensive course with experts in cancer field. This time, it was prolonged to 1.5 years due to COVID-19. Congratulations! |
Visiting Professor
James P. Dilger, PhD
Albert Dahan, MD, PhD, from the Department of Anesthesiology at Leiden University Medical Center in Leiden, The Netherlands, is our visiting professor for April. Dr, Dahan received his medical training in Amsterdam and then received a PhD at Leiden University where he was awarded the Marie Parijs Prize for best research/best thesis. The title of his dissertation was "The ventilatory response to CO2 and O2 in man: methods and implications". Part of this research was performed in at UCLA. Dr. Dahan then did his anesthesiology residency at Leiden. Dr. Dahan is currently a Full Professor, the Head of Research, and the Head of the Anesthesia & Pain Research Unit. He has served as Editor of the NTVA (the Dutch Society of Anesthesiology Journal) and as an Associate Editor for Anesthesiology, both since 2000. Recently, he has been appointed to editorial boards for BMC Anesthesiology, the European Journal of Pain, and Frontiers in Pain Research. Dr. Dahan's research interests are the treatment of chronic pain and optimizing perioperative outcome. He is an author on an incredible 428 peer-reviewed publications. Our own Drs. Gan and Bergese are among his many co-authors. Dr. Dehan has supervised 28 graduated PhD candidates and currently has 9 students in the process of earning their doctorate. We are delighted to welcome Dr. Dahan to Stony Brook, albeit virtually. He will present at departmental grand rounds on Wednesday, April 21. He talk is entitled "Opioid-induced respiratory depression". |
Anesthesia Technician Week
Melissa A. Day, MS, CRNA, CCRN
I would like to take a moment to recognize our awesome Anesthesia Technicians in our Anesthesia Department. Anesthesia Technicians Week was March 29 - April 4, 2021. Our Anesthesia Technicians work in the Ambulatory Surgical Center, Endoscopy, the Main Operating Room and multiple off-site areas. This past year as the pandemic started in March, they were instrumental in preparing Airway carts, Airway bundles for the Airway Team, preparing and cleaning anesthesia machines that were used as ventilators in the COVID positive units. The Anesthesia Technicians ensure that the operating rooms and procedural rooms are ready for cases that come in at any time of the day. They also assist the Anesthesia Provider, assist with efficiency in turning over OR rooms, obtain equipment and supplies at a moment's notice for Anesthesia Providers ensuring the safe delivery of patient care. Our Anesthesia Technicians play an integral role in providing safe and quality care for our patients. Please join me in taking a moment to acknowledge our Anesthesia Technicians for their hard work, dedication and assistance to Anesthesia Providers. Thank you for all you do in assisting Providers and the Anesthesia Department. |
NORA Division News
Tazeen Beg, MD On March 15, 2021 we opened up another NORA location which is an expansion or an offshoot of the main Endoscopy Unit on 14N. (See all of the Opening Day Photos here.) It took only a about three months to get the place ready thanks to a great team who worked really hard. We had weekly virtual Teams meetings and updates and several walkthroughs to reach the deadline. This area is in the ACP building and is being called ACP-Endo. It is being used to accommodate all the healthy screening colonoscopy and EGD patients who are mostly ASA I and II (no interventional stuff for sure!). With the advent of COVID last March, elective screenings and other tests were placed on the back burner which are being brought back now. There is a huge backlog from last year. As you already know the Endoscopy Unit was moved to the main OR for emergency and urgent diagnostic and therapeutic cases. The nurses were deployed to COVID units and 14N was a clean patient floor. Fortunately we have been able to reopen 4 rooms with most staff back from deployment. The ACP-Endo is housed on the second floor of the building next to the Pain Center and has two procedure rooms and 5 bed spots for pre-op/post op care in front of a central nursing station. The two rooms are covered by a team of one anesthesiologist/two CRNAS or a CRNA and a resident on non-operating room anesthesia (NORA) rotation. It is a nice space with huge windows and plenty of sunshine and happiness. Patients like the place and so do we! It is a quick in and out for them with minimal wait time. We open at 7 am with the first case in room at 7:30 and the last case scheduled at 4:00. It is more like an Office-based unit but with adherence to all the safety standards of a regular procedural area in the hospital. It will be a great place for the residents on NORA rotation to see the real world (kind of!). The procedure rooms are equipped with anesthesia machine, EMR, central oxygen and suction and an anesthesia cart with all the paraphernalia we use. There is one Pyxis in the common area.. The medication tray in the top drawer of anesthesia cart is standardized to ASC since their pharmacist comes to replace it. It isn’t very different from the trays we used to have in the Main. The phenylephrine syringes are in the main Pyxis. The MH cart (we hope not to need it) is located at the ASC which is connected through the Breast center. There is a McGrath available in the top drawer of each anesthesia machine. Unfortunately we do not have Anesthesia Tech support as of now and so whoever is in the room is requested to restock and clean the workstation before leaving. Thank you for being a team player! The anesthesia supply carts will be restocked daily. We are working on a solution. There are no cases on Wednesdays. We have lockers available for use and scrubs that you will need to sign out and return. And lastly what you were waiting to hear…yes, we do have a staff lounge with a refrigerator and microwave on the same floor and a small cafeteria on the first floor for the building users. Thank you to everyone who goes to endoscopy, one of the most challenging NORA sites. The GI staff, and more importantly, the patients appreciate our help. |
CA3 Residents Ace Exam
Joy Schabel, MD The ITE exam performance of our CA3 residents is off the charts! Congratulations! |
Best Maternity Ward
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New Publications
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Where on Campus is That?
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Monthly Muscle Chillaxant
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SleepTalker, the Stony Brook Anesthesiology Newsletter is published by the Department of Anesthesiology
Stony Brook Medicine, Stony Brook, NY Tong Joo Gan, M.D., MHS, FRCA, MBA, Chairman Editorial Board: James P. Dilger, Ph.D.; Stephen A. Vitkun, M.D., M.B.A., Ph.D.; Marisa Barone-Citrano, M.A.; Ramanjot S. Kang, M.D. |