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MEDICAL SCHOOL
EVALUATION & GRADUATION

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invited workshop at the ACGME annual
meeting in February 2021.
While innovation is a domain in which
academic medical centers excel, agility and
collaboration are not often considered in-
herent strengths. However, agility was cru-
cial to success. The team worked quickly to
implement a process, where none had ex-
isted before, to evaluate residents’ capabil-
ity to support several different areas of
patient care. Each resident and fellow who
participated in the CDDP utilized skills
that were part of their core education and
training as physicians. However, these were
often outside the scope of their specialty
training. Dyad teams were created with
UH and VA Hospital Medicine to enhance
supervision. Finally, the challenge with
managing residents deployed from different
programs to multiple teams for varying
time periods required on-the-fly changes in
the implementation process to create
“threads” of program-level ownership. Each
program would ensure resident or fellow
coverage to a specific team daily until
clearly transitioning to another program. Two residents “Cross-Deployed” to COVID Hospitalist Service with Internal Medicine Attending.
There were no reported drops in coverage.
Further, 100% of residents reported appro-
priate supervision on the survey mentioned ensured all patient care requirements were nering hospitals during this pandemic have
earlier, unlike reports in the press from satisfied with properly trained and super- provided models for us to build upon to en-
other areas of the county. vised providers. GME attended and re- hance patient care for years to come.
With the varied missions of clinical care, ported daily in the COVID response team
research and education, academic health of UTHSA and within the COVID Bed Woodson “Scott” Jones, MD is
systems can drift towards operating in silos Management Committee, as well for VA Vice Dean, GME & DIO and Pro-
at times. The Office of GME worked in co- and UH, coordinated by the UT Health fessor of Pediatrics at the UT Health
ordination with over 30 GME Program Di- Physicians Chief Medical Officer. Faculty Long School of Medicine. He is a member of
rectors and the clinical, nursing and set the tone for academic medical centers. the Bexar County Medical Society.
administrative leaders from UT, UH and Departments and divisions outside of gen-
the VA to establish and administer the eral internal medicine lead by example, step-
CDDP. UT GME leadership did COVID ping forward early to help support the
Clinical Learning Environment Walks COVID mission, which was critical to our
(CLEW) with UH leadership, checking in success. For instance, the trauma surgeons
resident workrooms for wellness checks leading the COVID-19 ICU expansion ef-
(i.e., candy, cookies), ensuring they had forts set a tone for an “all in” environment
PPE, hand sanitizer and reminding them within the institution, creating a “culture of
about staying masked in the often confined engagement” in meeting the needs of Bexar
workspaces. Regular meetings (daily during County and the Region. The efficiencies
peak) and virtual meetings with CDDP and improved communication and coordi-
leadership (DDM and Bucket Managers) nation across specialties and with our part-

18 SAN ANTONIO MEDICINE • June 2021