Surgery resident receives M-cubed
award
Robert
Strange, M.D., Department of Surgery resident, dashed into the fourth
floor intensive care unit ready to attend to a patient he thought was
dying. Instead he found a unit full of colleagues and his wife, ready
to congratulate him for receiving the M.D. Award.The award, also known as the M-cubed award, was developed 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. Each month, nominations are submitted 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 if a physician does not win during a particular month, then staff may nominate him or her again.
Dr. Robert Strange,
surgery resident and M.D. Award winner, cuts a piece of cake brought in
by coworkers as wife Sunday, right, and a coworker look on.Described as a pleasure to have in CTICU (cardiothoracic intensive care unit), Strange was recognized for taking excellent care of his patients and for going above and beyond his required duties in delivering quality patient care. His nomination provided one example, “A patient had a systolic blood pressure in the 40s. Dr. Strange was on the phone with a nurse discussing another patient and was told about the patient who was struggling. He was not on call, and rather than page the on-call resident he came in immediately to assess the patient. Every day he takes time to educate nurses, residents and family members about different procedures, patient conditions and anything you could have a question about. He has such an enthusiastic approach to his teaching; it’s never intimidating and engages everyone. Patients and family members tell us all the time how considerate and caring he is. Everyone here in CTICU feels fortunate to have him here with us.”
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, Feb. 23, 2007
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