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MICU staff nominate physician for award by Heather Woolwine Public Relations Despite the high level and quality of care provided in the MICU, it’s not a place many people would ever want to go. Many of the patients inside are so critically ill that it is often debated whether they will ever recover from what ails them. However, staff and family members often are  comforted by the tenderness and warmth of the unit’s medical director, Alice Boylan, M.D.   Dr. Alice Boylan, center, is surprised with her Magnetic M.D. award. She was recognized for excellence in patient care and collaboration with nursing staff. Boylan is the Monthly Magnetic M.D., or M-cubed award recipient for the month of July. The award recognizes physicians who exhibit excellence in patient care and collaboration with nursing staff.   The Nurse Alliance Leadership Council developed the award to honor outstanding physicians deemed by their peers, colleagues and patients as “a cut above other physicians” as part of MUSC’s continuous pursuit of excellence, said Pam Smith, R.N., Nurse Alliance chair and Children’s Emergency Department clinical operations coordinator.   On the day her award was presented, Boylan had briefly left the unit when the “prize patrol” arrived to surprise her with the award. As the staff scrambled to think of how to get her back on the floor as soon as possible, one unit member quickly suggested that Boylan be paged with a patient consult request, knowing that it would have her running back to the unit. True to form, Boylan showed up quickly, but while on the way to the faux patient consult, she stopped to offer advice and check on another patient. Again, staff members and colleagues who gathered for the presentation clamored to find the best way to get her down to their end of the unit without spoiling the surprise. As nurses quickly wheeled a crash cart toward the faux patient’s consult room, Boylan noticed and immediately made her way down to the unit. As she rounded a support beam, Smith and Boylan’s colleagues stopped her with the surprise.   Boylan, touched by the recognition and the gathered crowd, began to laugh and thank everyone as she switched out of emergency mode. She looked on as Smith read from her nomination:   “On behalf of the entire MICU staff, I am nominating Dr. Alice Boylan for her outstanding commitment and dedication to MICU. We recently had an 18 year-old critically ill patient in our unit for an extended period of time. Several MICU team members had developed a special bond with the patient and family. When this patient unexpectedly coded (heart failure) during the evening hours, Dr. Boylan came in from home and worked alongside the nursing and respiratory therapy staff in an effort to save this patient’s life. Although the patient did not survive, Dr. Boylan is to be commended not only for her expert clinical skills, but for the high level of compassion that she showed the family that night. Dr. Boylan’s superior leadership skills have brought MICU to a new level. She is a tremendous supporter of nursing-based research and goes above and beyond to collaborate with the nurses. We are proud to have Dr. Boylan as the medical director of MICU.”   The physician selected each month may be nominated by a patient or peer for providing excellence in practice. Each month, nominations are submitted via the intranet at http://www.musc.edu/medcenter/formsToolbox/DocAward. A subgroup of the leadership council considers nominations following a process to remove identifiers and ensure fairness. The nominations are restarted at the beginning of the month, so that if a physician does not win during a particular month, staff may nominate him or her again.   Recipients of the award receive a certificate recognizing their achievement, as well as a bag of M&Ms. “Typically, in the medical community, these initials are seen in a negative way because they mean morbidity and mortality,” Smith said. “Physicians who present at M&M are typically in the hot seat during their presentation because of the complex issues involved, so to put a positive spin on these typically negative initials, we present them with the bag of candy.”     Friday, Sept. 1, 2006 Catalyst Online is published weekly, updated as needed and improved from time to time by the MUSC Office of Public Relations for the faculty, employees and students of the Medical University of South Carolina. Catalyst Online editor, Kim Draughn, can be reached at 792-4107 or by email, catalyst@musc.edu. Editorial copy can be submitted to Catalyst Online and to The Catalyst in print by fax, 792-6723, or by email to catalyst@musc.edu. To place an ad in The Catalyst hardcopy, call Island Publications at 849-1778, ext. 201.