Helping Students Spread Their Wings
Gomez-Carrion (l) with Greene
Nurturing others is second nature for Yvonne Gomez-Carrion, MD, BIDMC obstetrics and gynecology.
In addition to her “own” children, Gomez-Carrion has taken an extended family of students under her wing during her 10-year involvement with the Biomedical Science Careers Program (BSCP). The non-profit mentoring program provides guidance to students from minority and disadvantaged groups who are interested in careers in the biomedical sciences. High school through postdoctoral students are paired with mentors who have common career interests.
The program “empowers students by giving them tools to negotiate the complex educational system,” says Gomez-Carrion, who mentors students interested in women’s health. “It is certainly a wonderful, rewarding and uplifting experience for those of us who keep in touch with the students over the years.”
On March 11, Gomez-Carrion will seek to inspire more students at the BSCP’s Biomedical Science Careers Student Conference. Joining her will be fellow BIDMC mentors J. Jacques Carter, MD, MPH, general medicine and primary care; Michael Cahalane, MD, general surgery; Tom Delbanco, MD, general medicine and primary care; Rosemary B. Duda, MD, MPH, surgical oncology; Albert Galaburda, MD, chief, behavioral neurology; Changiz Geula, PhD, gerontology/neuroscience; Prudence Lam, MD, hematology/oncology; Camilia Martin, MD, neonatology; DeWayne Pursley, MD, MPH, neonatologist-in-chief; Joyce Sackey-Acheampong, MD, general medicine and primary care; and Vincent Smith, MD, MPH, neonatology.
It was at a similar BSCP conference two years ago that Gomez-Carrion met student Nicola Greene, 24. Greene began to shadow Gomez-Carrion at BIDMC during clinical consultations and in the operating room.
“Dr. Gomez-Carrion’s knowledge and her time were indispensable,” says Greene, who keeps in touch with her mentor through regular lunches or dinners. “She taught me not to be afraid to branch out and that there will always be barriers but that you always have to push through them.”
With Gomez-Carrion’s encouragement, Greene has decided to pursue holistic medicine with a focus on women’s health at Pacific College of Oriental Medicine in New York.
The BSCP was founded in 1991 by the Harvard Medical School Minority Faculty Development Program, the New England Board of Higher Education and the Massachusetts Medical Society.
“If we are to address issues of diversity in the health work force, we must begin to connect students with mentors, and with career opportunities,” says Joan Reede, MD, MPH, MS, dean for diversity and community partnership, Harvard Medical School, and president and chair, BSCP. “Harvard faculty have embraced – and strongly support – our collective effort at opening doors and nurturing students of color.”
Information on BSCP: www.bscp.org
- Ione Villegas
Published monthly for the people of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center to build community, communicate direction, foster pride and recognize accomplishments.
Produced by Beth Israel Deaconess communications, (66)7-7300
director, internal communications: Cindy Whitcome
managing editor:
Valerie Hope Goldstein
print and web layout & design:
Hugh Blaisdell, Jennifer McGrath
contributing writers: Lisa Linden, Cindy Whitcome
contributing photographers: Oran Barber, Bruce Wahl
© BIDMC, Boston, MA, USA, 2006. All rights reserved. Material may be reproduced only with the express written consent of communications.
BIDMC is an EEO/AA employer.
“Lean Thinking” Employees Make Improvements
Aguinaldo Pimental, a core tech who works in central processing, uses lean thinking frequently on the job.
(l-r): Pimentel, Sweeney and Lee conduct a “lean” inventory of the case cart area.
Barbara Sweeney, RN, operating room clinical advisor, was surprised to learn that it took 57 steps in the central processing department (CPD) to prepare an operating room case cart with supplies for patients’ procedures. “I never considered looking at each step. I was focused on the end result,” she recalls.
Today, the same process takes 24 steps – a 58 percent reduction – thanks to some collective “lean thinking” by staff. Lean thinking at BIDMC is the product of the Lean Pilot Program begun last September to give employees tools to increase productivity, efficiency, and employee and patient satisfaction.
Lean program leader Alice Lee, special assistant to the president for business transformation, notes that lean thinking involves “evaluating every step taken to complete a process, then questioning each action’s significance to the end result. Rooting out waste and finding efficiencies can lead to significant improvements.”
This "spaghetti diagram" depicts the layout of the CPD before Lean improvements. The red lines indicate how much a core tech (such as Aguinaldo) had to walk to complete one case cart.
Susan Dorion, MSN, nurse manager of the post anesthesia care unit (PACU), preoperative holding areas and the preadmission testing clinic (PAT), admits to being skeptical initially. “Before, consultants have made recommendations that were unrealistic or insignificant,” she says. “Lean thinking is different because those who do the work identify and implement better ways of doing things.”
Lean thinking begins by creating a “value stream” for the area under study – an outline of processes and procedures from beginning to end – that requires participation from every individual involved in any part of the process. Following two days of documenting and evaluating value stream elements, staff identify improvement opportunities and meet a month later for an intense, four-day “rapid improvement event” that results in change, such as the streamlined system for OR case
cart preparation.
The perioperative value stream effort involved Dorion, CPD, the preoperative holding area and OR staff, PAT and PACU nurses, anesthesiologists, surgeons, clinic staff and schedulers.
Lee notes, “Employees can identify simple ‘fixes’ to implement right away. It’s not magic, nor difficult to master. It is using common sense tools and techniques that, when tightly interconnected, have a remarkably positive effect on safety, productivity and employee morale.”
Rapid improvement events also have led to increased productivity in other BIDMC areas:
The Keith C. Field CyberKnife Center increased its daily patient capacity.
Radiation oncology decreased treatment planning time from four weeks to less than two weeks.
PAT reduced the time required to complete patient information by more than four hours per patient.
Additional departments will benefit from lean training in the coming months.
“Lean thinking is not a project with a beginning and end. It changes how we think,” says Dorion. “Really ‘seeing’ and questioning how and why things are done opens our eyes to new improvement opportunities every day.”
- Peggy Egan