Introduction

My name is Tom Whalen, and I am the Chair of the Surgery Department at Lehigh Valley Hospital and Allentown and Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. LVH is a large institution with significant teaching and research activities. It is a member of The Council of Teaching Hospitals
, one of about 400 such hospitals. Chairing a Surgery Department at such an institution is a full time job with daily challenges. I am creating this blog in an attempt to engender dialog among my fellow Chairs of Surgery. The problems that we face: credentialing, quality assurance and patient safety, surgeon behavior, on call specialists, competition among hospitals and other institutions, etc. are far from unique. The collective brain power we may bring together will certainly outweigh our individual efforts.

In the days and weeks to come I will try to highlight issues one at a time, and I hope that many will share their own experiences with us as a group.