Public Notices

BLUE RIBBON COMMISSION DELIVERS REPORT
ON STONY BROOK UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER
Panel Reports ‘No Systemic Quality Failures’

Blue Ribbon Commission Report -- Redacted Version

STONY BROOK, N.Y., January 11, 2007—A Blue Ribbon Commission responsible for examining patient care at Stony Brook University Medical Center issued a report today following an extensive three-month review. The Commission, which reported to SUNY Chancellor John R. Ryan, the SUNY Board of Trustees, and Stony Brook President Shirley Strum Kenny, issued a 39-page report. A summary of the report’s findings include:
  • There were no systemic quality failures at Stony Brook University Medical Center.
  • None of the cases cited by the New York State Department of Health resulted from inadequate pediatric cardiac surgery or cardiac care.
  • Reviews of Stony Brook University Medical Center by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations and by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have been positive, including the finding of no systemic quality failures in the Medical Center’s performance.
  • With respect to pediatric cardiac surgery, the change proposed by the New York State Department of Health, calling for the full-time employment of a pediatric cardiac surgeon in order to resume the program, is not likely to improve the excellent results of pediatric cardiac surgery most recently practiced at Stony Brook.
  • In the present absence of the program, a recommended course is to establish a fail-safe referral plan for pediatric cardiac surgery, and to consider resuming that service at Stony Brook only after further planning to include both more coverage than one credentialed individual and to grow the volume of the cases significantly.
  • Cardiac catheterization procedures on children could be resumed with defined limitation of the specific procedures to be allowed.
  • The Commission recommends that the position of Vice President for Medical Affairs be established.
  • The appointments of Dr. Richard Fine as Dean and Dr. Steven Strongwater as CEO strengthen the Medical Center.
  • Efforts must be made to strengthen openness and communication in both directions between leadership and faculty, to foster greater collegiality among the various specialties and disciplines, to ensure proper cooperation among the School of Medicine, the hospital, and Faculty Practice Plan.
  • The Commission recommends the establishment of a local Advisory Board to function in large part as does a typical Board of Trustees or Directors of an academic medical center. Since the Board would not have statutory fiduciary responsibility, its recommendations would be advisory, yet of great benefit.
  • Recent proposals have surfaced to separate the hospital from the School of Medicine, and to separate both from the University. The Commission strongly opposes those proposals, which it feels will subvert the excellence of the academic medical center through distancing clinicians from laboratory investigators in biomedical science and in other scientific fields throughout the University at a time when greater intellectual interchange is called for. Creativity in the development of new insights into disease and health and in the resulting new techniques and treatments that result depends upon greater dialogue among a growing variety of scientific disciplines.
The Blue Ribbon Commission was chaired by Mitchell T. Rabkin, M.D. He is a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and served for 30 years as CEO of Boston’s Beth Israel Hospital. He is also a former board member of the Duke University Health System and presently serves as vice chair of the New York School of Medicine Foundation Board.

 

The other members of the Blue Ribbon Commission are Gilbert S. Omenn, M.D., Ph.D., former CEO of the University of Michigan Health System and presently Professor of Internal Medicine, Human Genetics, and Public Health, and Director of the Center for Computational Medicine and Biology at the University of Michigan; Charles Young, Ph.D., who served as Chancellor of UCLA for 29 years and later President of the University of Florida; Aram V. Chobanian, M.D., President Emeritus of Boston University and former Dean of its School of Medicine; and Paul Hickey, M.D., an internationally recognized expert in pediatric cardiac anesthesia, Anesthesiologist-in-Chief  at The Children’s Hospital in Boston, and Professor of Anesthesia at Harvard.

“The Blue Ribbon Commission has done extraordinary work in conducting a thorough review,” said Stony Brook President Shirley Strum Kenny. “It is reassuring to our patients and the community that the Commission praised the quality of care at Stony Brook. As the report also noted, we have the opportunity for strong new leadership under Dean Richard Fine and CEO Steven Strongwater. We will carefully examine the report's recommendations in consultation with the Chancellor and the Board of Trustees. We have already been moving toward the establishment of a hospital advisory board, as suggested by the Commission. Now we can develop a plan to implement other recommendations from the Commission.”

 “We are pleased that the Blue Ribbon Commission found no systemic quality issues at Stony Brook,” said Steven L. Strongwater, M.D., CEO of Stony Brook Medical Center.  “These findings are consistent with other positive evaluations of the by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations; awards received for patient safety; the leadership role we play in patient safety initiatives, and our excellent patient mortality statistics, both regionally and nationally. As always, patient safety remains our top priority.”

 

 

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