Heritage Corner: The life and times of the Staff Bulletin
“This Bulletin is intended as an organ for the exchange and dissemination of news concerning The Children’s Hospital and its Medical and Dental Staff,” proclaimed the opening paragraph of the very first issue of the Staff Bulletin, published in December 1967. “As the Children’s Hospital changes and grows into The Children’s Hospital Medical Center, it is hoped that this Bulletin will change and grow with it.”
The world in which the Staff Bulletin made its debut was very different from today. Community docs still rounded on their patients, even in the NICU. They would regularly shoot the breeze with their colleagues in the doctors’ lounge and rub elbows with department and division directors in the doctors’ dining room. They learned about important hospital updates at Grand Rounds (which they regularly attended) or at quarterly medical staff meetings. Alumni who wanted to keep in touch with their old colleagues exchanged letters!
But the times, they were a-changin’. This was the ’60s, and recent and developing affiliations between Children’s and other community agencies, such as the Convalescent Hospital, United Cerebral Palsy, and the Children’s Dental Care Foundation, were transforming Children’s Hospital into The Children’s Hospital Medical Center. The place was getting so BIG! Construction on a new south wing was about to begin. Verbal communication was no longer an adequate medium for the transmission of important information.
A bulletin is born
The first meeting of the “Hospital Staff Bulletin Committee” took place in November 1966. Community physician Bob Gregory was chair; also, in attendance were Pediatric Department Chairman Ed Pratt, surgeon Lester Martin, Radiology Chief Fred Silverman, and several other physicians and administrators. Serving in an advisory role was George P. Stimson, former editor of the Cincinnati Times-Star newspaper, then famous for his in-depth reporting of the 1937 flood. According to his obituary, he was appointed the “first director of Community Relations at Children’s in 1958” and was “founder of the hospital’s newsletter.”
Be that as it may, the creation and production of the nascent Staff Bulletin was clearly a group effort, and it took a year of meetings before the first edition made its appearance. It was then promptly re-issued one month later (January 1968) because its editors feared their intended audience missed its arrival due to Christmas/holiday distractions! This four-page Staff Bulletin was printed on tan paper; its orange (!) banner was an artist’s renditioning of the not-yet-built south wing of the old hospital.
The overall appearance of the Staff Bulletin has changed dramatically over the past 51 years. It has expanded in size (up to 12 pages), changed color, acquired an internal structure, added photographs (first black and white, now color), and has been available in electronic format for the past 10 years.
However, its content – at least in broad terms – has remained fairly consistent. It typically includes news – construction (never ending!), expansion, outreach, ward and satellite openings and closings; policy and procedure reviews, staff appointments, promotions, awards, retirements, and obits; clinical care and research updates; and a calendar of CME opportunities and social events. Originally, articles on these topics appeared randomly throughout the bulletin. In the mid-’80s, an internal structure was created to organize articles into fixed categories: Management Memo (now called New and Noteworthy) People, Clinical Acumen, Research Review, and Education Update.
The most significant change over the years has been in emphasis. In the early issues, policy articles were relatively short: how to order pre-admission testing; how the Test Referral Center works. As medicine and the medical center became more corporate, more extensive articles on safety and quality initiatives, outcomes, informatics, and physician behavior appeared. Clinical articles and research updates were more prevalent in the earlier newsletters. In 1969, for example, the Staff Bulletin devoted four issues to extensive coverage of the hospital’s first heart and liver transplants. Those articles are so detailed, they almost read like op-notes!
Monthly Grand Rounds schedules have always been a popular feature, yet curiously, there are issues of the Staff Bulletin from the mid-’70s to mid-’80s that do not carry this information. Occasionally the Staff Bulletin has included inserts – the “Staph” Bulletin, put out by the Infectious Disease Department in the ’80’s, and “Therapeutic Concepts,” authored by the Pharmacy Department in the ’90s. And the topic most frequently covered in the Staff Bulletin over its five decades? Physician parking!
People behind the publication
Many, many medical staff members have served on the Staff Bulletin Committee over these 51 years. Radiologist Corning Benton succeeded Bob Gregory as chair; other long-term chairs were Ray Baker and Don Nofziger. The committee has also included representatives from nursing, physician services, and the research foundation. The president of the medical staff always serves as an ex officio member. The committee’s role is to determine the content of each issue, but who actually wrote the articles, at least for the first 15 years, is unclear, as most stories appear without bylines. In the mid-’80s, Char Warman from Public Relations became editor and primary author; she was succeeded by Bea Katz, who served as editor for over 20 years. Cindy Duesing has been editor since 2007.
Specialists and researchers have written attributed articles for the “Clinical Acumen” and “Research Review” sections. Throughout 1968, medical staff president Jim Englert authored a monthly column, short pieces encouraging his colleagues to volunteer for committees and complete their medical records. This regular feature quickly disappeared, but in the 2000s, medical staff officers, board chairs, and other corporate leaders were periodically invited to submit op-ed pieces on important topics. For example, an article by President Melodie Blacklidge regarding the “Broken Social Contract” between community physicians and the medical staff and hospital, which appeared in the March 2010 issue, generated an avalanche of thoughtful “letter to the editor” responses.
Over the years, the most prolific contributor to the Staff Bulletin has been Dr. Bill Gerhardt, who for decades was basically a freelance writer, sometimes turning in so many stories that it was impossible to include them all! Many of the articles appearing in the People section—obits, retirements, alumni reminiscences and honors, were authored by him. Around 2000, he was persuaded to join the Staff Bulletin Committee. He was given the title “staff historian” and encouraged to focus on writing longer historical pieces that became “Heritage Corner.”
And now, once again, times have changed. Electronic communication is replacing print media, and Staff Bulletin is being transformed again. Short subjects and “need to know” items will appear in the Staff Bulletin section of the daily email Connect for internal medical staff. Feature articles will now appear in the monthly digital magazine Inspire, which will launch in January and be interactive and mobile-friendly. It will also have a “print” option for those of you—like me—who still prefer the experience of reading paper. In addition, the Physician Outreach and Engagement team will be creating a monthly email newsletter with practical information for community providers.
As its founders hoped, the Staff Bulletin has indeed “changed and grown” along with the medical center. We’re looking forward to a new chapter.
--M. Elaine Billmire
