A number of Health Science Center faculty members recently received special recognition.
Cultural/linguistic competence self-assessment draws praiseThree faculty members of The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and two administrators at the University Health System have won the American College of Healthcare Executives 2007 Edgar C. Hayhow Award for their article on the cultural and linguistic competence self-assessment in the University Health System. This article was selected from all the articles published in 2005.
Co-authors from the Health Science Center are Martha A. Medrano, M.D., M.P.H., professor of psychiatry and director of the university’s Medical Hispanic Center of Excellence; Raymond M. Costello, Ph.D., clinical professor of psychiatry; and Viola Benavente, M.S.N., R.N., former assistant professor of acute nursing care in the School of Nursing. University Health System co-authors are Jean Setzer, Ph.D., vice president of strategic planning, and Steve Enders, F.A.C.H.E., senior vice president of ambulatory services.
Dr. Medrano and Mr. Enders will receive this award on March 21 at the College’s 50th Congress on Healthcare Leadership in New Orleans.
“We conducted a 360-degree self-assessment for the inclusion of cultural and linguistic competence,” Dr. Medrano said. “We found that UHS has several strengths that enabled it to meet the medical needs of its target population. These included the number of Spanish-speaking health care providers and staff, and locations of ambulatory centers downtown and in the West Side where many of these patients reside.”
Dr. Medrano said site visits, focus groups, surveys and in-depth interviews of patients, providers, staff and key stakeholders in the community showed that a surprising number of languages — at least eight — are spoken among the groups.
The Health Science Center has one of the strongest contingents of Spanish-speaking faculty physicians in the U.S. “The fact that 16 percent of Health Science Center faculty members are Hispanic really does allow us to address the cultural and linguistic needs of our community,” Dr. Medrano said. “In other academic institutions that have 1 percent Hispanic faculty and large Hispanic patient populations, you might risk cultural and language misinterpretation leading to medical errors.”
The assessment was conducted within the context of standards outlined in the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services 2001 Standards for Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services.
Patterson elected to Infectious Disease Society of America Board of Directors Jan E. Patterson, M.D., professor and interim chair of the department of medicine, recently was elected to a three-year term on the Infectious Disease Society of America (IDSA) board of directors.
IDSA, with more than 8,000 members, is the premier international professional society for infectious disease physicians, scientists and other health care professionals. The society’s goal is to improve the health of individuals, communities and society as a whole by promoting excellence in patient care, education, research, public heath and prevention, as related to infectious diseases.
Dr. Patterson was named interim chair of the department of medicine in August. She also is director of the epidemiology laboratory. Previously, she was vice chair of the department and chief of the medical service at South Texas Veterans Health Care System. She also served as medical director of infection control at University Health System and South Texas Veterans Health Care System.
Dr. Patterson is known internationally for her work in hospital epidemiology and antibiotic resistance and has been a member of the Food and Drug Administration Anti-Infective Advisory Board.
Pruitt receives lifetime achievement award Basil A Pruitt Jr., M.D., F.A.C.S., F.C.C.M., professor in the division of trauma, received the Society of University Surgeons Lifetime Achievement Award. The award, given for extraordinary achievements in the field of academic surgery, was presented at the second annual Academic Surgical Congress in Phoenix, Ariz.
The 1952 Harvard graduate earned his medical degree from Tufts University School of Medicine. Throughout his career, Dr. Pruitt focused his clinical and research activities on the surgical care of burn and trauma patients.
He served in the Army, where he was commander and director of the U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research at Fort Sam Houston for 27 years. He retired from the Medical Corps in December 1995, when he accepted a faculty position as clinical professor of surgery at the Health Science Center. He has held an appointment as professor of surgery at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences since 1978.
He is a member of 38 professional societies and has held leadership positions in many of them. He was president of the American Burn Association, the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma, the Surgical Infection Society, the North American Burn Society, the Halsted Society, the International Society for Burn Injuries, the Southern Surgical Association, the American Trauma Society and the American Surgical Association. He recently was chosen president-elect of the Shock Society.
