Fall 2020 Newsletter
SCW Update
We hope you plan to attend the upcoming virtual annual meeting of the Wisconsin Surgical Society on November 6! While the virtual format is unconventional, we think it will still be an engaging and informative meeting. The SCW Coordinating Center is actively involved with planning the meeting, contributing both as part of the WSS program committee and helping support the logistics of running a statewide surgical meeting over a Zoom platform.
Announcements
- Upcoming Launch of the SCW Learning Management System: The formal launch of our new online Learning Management System (LMS) is planned for December, but we will provide a preview during the SCW Update at the WSS Virtual Annual Meeting.
- Improvements to SCW Data Platform and Performance Reports: We look forward to distributing updated performance reports for the breast and colorectal surgery initiatives at the WSS Virtual Annual Meeting.
Project Updates
In addition to SCW’s quality initiatives, we also have several pilot projects that are generating best practices for dissemination to the broader SCW membership. For more information on any of these projects, please contact us at info@scwisconsin.org.
- “Partnering with rural providers to develop a sustainable infrastructure to measure and improve colonoscopy quality”: SCW was recently awarded funding from the Carbone Cancer Center to support a project suggested by the SCW Rural Task Force focused on colonoscopy.
- “Addressing Opioid Prescribing in the Stateline”: This 2-year project, funded in 2019 by the Hendricks Family Foundation, aims to address opioid prescribing in the Stateline area.
- “Expanding Disposal of Unused Medication in Surgical Settings”: This recently concluded pilot project was funded by the State of Wisconsin Department of Health Services with the goal of developing best practices around disposal of unused opioids prescribed after surgical procedures.
Member Highlight
Brian Hong, MD, General Surgeon, ThedaCare
- Why did you decide to get involved with SCW? I decided to get involved with the Surgical Collaborative of Wisconsin, because as a surgeon at a small rural hospital, getting access to data about my practice can be difficult given the limited resources that I have. SCW offers a nice avenue to not only obtain the data, but also has a network of other surgeons throughout the state that can be a great resource to improve your own practice.
- What SCW initiatives and projects are you most excited about? I am excited about the rural surgery initiative. The initiative will hopefully give us some tools to improve rural surgical care as we have some challenges with low case volume for some procedures and a breadth of practice that is different from surgeons in larger cities.
- What do you appreciate most about being part of SCW? I appreciate the collegiality of all the surgeons involved in SCW regardless of whether they are in large academic centers or smaller private practice groups; we are all striving to improve the surgical care we provide for our patients. I always feel motivated and have new ideas for my practice after attending meetings.