Becker's Hospital Review

66 CARE DELIVERY 10 Things to Know About Kaiser Permanente School of Medicine By Erin Marshall H ealthcare giant Kaiser Permanente will open a medi- cal school in fall 2019, a strategic move CEO Bernard Tyson calls a "natural evolution." Although the development process is in early stages, the Oak- land, Calif.-based nonprofit health system has already outlined a few major details and philosophies behind the plan. Here are 10 things to know about the health system and its Kai- ser Permanente School of Medicine. 1. A few major logistics about the medical school have been re- leased. e medical school will open in the fall of 2019 with a class of 48 students, according to e Wall Street Journal. Kaiser said tuition will be comparable to and competitive with other medical schools, according to the Los Angeles Times. 2. At the time of publication, other details have not been negotiat- ed. Kaiser Permanente has not said how much the school will cost. Although the school will be somewhere in Southern California, Kaiser is still determining a final location for the school, as well as the campus size. 3. Leadership for the school is yet to be determined. One of the medical school's top priorities for 2016 is to recruit a dean. How- ever, some leaders have already announced their involvement in the school. Christine Cassel, MD, president and CEO of the Na- tional Quality Forum, will leave her post March 1 to join the lead- ership team designing the medical school. 4. A nonprofit health system planning a medical school is rare. e majority of the medical schools in the United States are affiliated with universities rather than health systems. "ere are precedents, but this will be different," said John Prescott, MD, chief academic officer for the American Association of Medical Colleges. "It's an integrated healthcare system that's looking at developing a medical school. I think there will be some surprises as the school unfolds." 5. Kaiser CEO Ber- nard Tyson spoke out about the endeavor to build the school. "is is a natural evolution for us," he said. "We are very motivated in being part of the transformation of the entire healthcare eco- system." 6. Kaiser already works with medical school students. Cur- rently, 600 physicians are finishing their residency programs at Kaiser Permanente. Annually, thousands of others complete part of their medical training at Kaiser. 7. e school will capitalize off Kaiser's existing diversity ef- forts. e Kaiser Per- manente School of Do Physicians Drink Too Much Coffee? By Max Green B y their own admission, physicians and nurses drink more coffee than engineers, teach- ers, scientists, machine operators and government workers. Nearly half of Americans admit to feeling less productive without coffee, and existing literature indicates clinicians aren't drinking coffee for the taste, but for its stimulant prop- erties. Some hospitals around the world, such as Queensland Health in Australia, suggest staff use coffee as a tool to stay alert on the job. Queensland even suggests a recommended dosage: 400 mg per day — equivalent to about six cups of coffee. But are most healthcare workers drinking that much? Researchers attempted to answer this question by looking at one full year's worth of pur- chasing habits at a large teaching hospital in Switzerland. They analyzed the coffee purchas- ing habits of 766 medical professionals and found 84 percent of them purchased coffee in a hospital cafeteria at least one time in 2014. Over the year, they consumed 70,772 cups total. The study, aptly titled "Black Medicine," is published in the British Medical Journal. Orthopedic surgeons drank the most coffee, followed by radiologists, general surgeons, neurosurgeons, neurologists, internists, gynecologists and anesthetists, according to the paper. Other findings included men drink more coffee than women and older clinicians were more likely to consume more than younger clinicians. The study also looked at generosity when it came to purchasing coffee and found older coffee buyers were more likely to buy a round for their colleagues. The paper notes the health effects of coffee are up for debate, and the results may not be applicable to all institutions and countries. According to 2014 data, the U.S. comes in at No. 16 on a list of nations that consume the most coffee, and Switzerland comes in at No. 14, only two notches apart. n

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