MUSC professor Joanne M. Conroy, M.D., appointed in August to chair the Medical University’s Department of Anesthesiology, is the first woman to chair a department at the university and is the only one among 10 chairs of anesthesiology in the United States.

Calling herself a “homegrown chair,” she recalls a number of times she tried to leave MUSC. “But I always found the greater opportunity and greater challenge right here.”

Her latest challenge? “Supervising nearly 100 anesthesia providers as they service 30 separate sites at MUSC each day. And that’s a tremendous increase from nine rooms we had in 1986.” The ongoing challenge, she said, is to continue providing the same high level of care under the constraints of insurance carriers and government regulations while contributing to hospital and university initiatives.

Conroy has plans for her department:

• Engage in community outreach activities, helping to establish anesthesia services in non-traditional locations in Hampton and Berkeley counties and in Mt. Pleasant.
• Develop clinical research in anesthesia and pain control at MUSC. Slated for 1998 is the forming of a committee of internal and external clinical researchers to participate in a research strategic planning initiative for the department. “We need to conduct research at the national level,” Conroy said, “and to do that we need to build our infrastructure. We need to seek and hire staff, grant writers, lab assistants, and others. We need to seek national funding for our research. It’s critical and achievable.”
• Continue faculty development. “In the last five years, our anesthesia faculty have become more visible at the state and national levels with appointments to positions on professional boards.
• Continue to develop resident education programs. “After all, that’s what we’re all about around here. We’re here to teach residents. And we’re fortunate. We routinely fill all our resident slots while most anesthesia departments don’t. Residents are finding MUSC a more attractive place to fulfill their residency. And it’s not just the location; they know they can receive the training here to enable them to pass their boards.” She explained that MUSC anesthesiology residents ranked in the 95th percentile on the national anesthesiology board exams last year.
• Move to Rutledge Tower.
• Work with the Department of Pediatric Surgery and other surgical divisions to develop one-stop surgery scheduling so patients can meet their surgeon, their anesthetist, and have their surgery all in one day. Recent adoption of computerized scheduling for the department’s 100 anesthesia providers has made one-stop scheduling, pre-op, surgery and recovery a reality.

Under Conroy, probably the biggest change the department has experienced is her egalitarian management style. “The department has always been run in a paternalistic way,” Conroy said. “I want to encourage my faculty and residents to buy in to the initiatives we as a group undertake. The best way to do that is to solicit their ideas and solutions and listen to their complaints.” She said she cannot ignore the talent and professional insight that exists within her department.

“I want people here to take initiative, use critical feedback effectively, and have the confidence to make changes,” she said.