Montefiore Medical Center provided this statement into response to queries from City Limits about federal inspection reports that indicated lapses in procedures were discovered during investigations into suicide attempts in 2016 and 2017:
Montefiore has one of the largest, most respected teaching programs in the country. We are incredibly proud of our program and the talented, mission focused doctors we train.
Each year more than 1,400 residents come to Montefiore for accredited residency and fellowship programs, ranging from family medicine and pediatrics to subspecialty fellowships.
As an academic medical center located in the Bronx, the poorest urban county in the country, our residents get hands-on training, caring for clinically complex people. They learn from top-notch physician and physician-scientists from around the country and the world.
We are singularly focused on providing the best education and training for the doctors of tomorrow. To do this:
•We strictly adhere to guidelines established by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME). This program focuses on six key areas: patient safety, health care quality, care transitions, supervision, duty hours and fatigue management and mitigation, and professionalism.
•We have more than 50 multidisciplinary quality committees supported by Montefiore’s sophisticated performance analytics, and system-wide quality performance group to continuously improve quality and ensure safety.
•The core philosophies in our teaching program emphasize the fact that all residents are always supported, and that our foundation for learning is based on mutual respect.
•We practice a “Just Culture” environment predicated on learning, and flagging potential or actual errors. This model supports a balanced, rigorous multidisciplinary approach that looks for root causes of problems within the system and addresses them.
Finally, Montefiore works closely with key oversight bodies: the Joint Commission, CMS, and the State of New York, along with the ACGME. We are dedicated to cultivating physicians who are trained to promote optimal patient quality and safety.
