Update from Jocelyn Carter

Reflections of an LPMR Alum

As I sit in my barely used administrative office adjacent from the main hospital here at MGH, I can hardly believe that nearly six months has passed since I graduated from the Leadership Preventive Medicine Residency and completed the MPH program at The Dartmouth Institute. Since that time I’ve already burned through several white coats, completed multiple ward months, survived an oh so very arduous hospital credentialing process and (as I’ve been assured that this is protocol) a second but somewhat less arduous hospital credentialing process. I feel like a young student once again at the beginning of the semester as I learn the twists and turns of the hospital campus and reconcile that somehow very few of the 3000 people that work here don’t know each other well and it will be some time before I speak to someone without them inquiring just after the introduction “Are you….. new?”

My clinical experience here has been fascinating and my first day of work was no less so. That day a young woman presented to my care after being found down at Logan just after completing a transatlantic flight from her native Eastern European homeland. No history, no English. No problem. I opened the door of her room to hear the piercing sounds of screams and frantic cries of the patient as nursing staff attempted to aid her. After a brief and non-productive attempt to sooth all parties, I completed a limited history (with a helpful translator standing by), exam and assessment and involved security for the safety of the patient and staff. Several days, neuro-psychiatrists, hundreds of milligrams of lorazepam, and an ICU visit later, she was all better and ready to return home. That was only the beginning of week one and marked the evolution of two novel ideas for me: one was that while perhaps the patients here were not sicker, they were at the very least more complex; and two was that I wasn’t in Kansas anymore.
Happily, my LPMR training seems to loom large as begin to link my clinical and non-clinical endeavors and do the work of learning the values of my new peers, how they like to be rewarded and where the power hubs lie within the Microsystems I belong to and work with. Endless e-mails of hospital and medical school forums, conferences and summits whir around me and with the help of a handy mentor and unit chief, I’ve chosen my attendance well and reaped benefit. I watch as the conversations around payment reform, performance measures, high risk populations and physician leadership take shape and fuel a culture of promise and fiercely defiant optimism.

As the new year comes into full view, I can not fully imagine what lies ahead but I find myself holding fast to the edicts of my training as well as the wise words of former and present mentors and coaches. Though over 100 miles away from my former home, all still seems to ring true. This is a wonderfully comforting thought in these unique and changing times.
And still, no snow.

Jocelyn Carter, MD, MPH
DHMC-Leadership Preventive Medicine Residency, 2010 January 15, 2012

New life for the LPMR blog

Hello fellow LPMR alums,

With the start of the new year, I've resolved to update the LPMR blog that Lisa Pastel created on a more frequent basis so that the growing body of alums who are out there can use this to keep in touch and update fellow LPMR alums.

Please let me know what you would like to see on this blog whether it is to (1) update other alums or the program about your current work projects, promotions etc. (2) see new and exciting events as they relate to quality improvement, research, health policy (3) news from the LPMR program, DHMC and the Upper Valley (4) pictures (5) all of the above.

Thanks for the input,
Steve