First Seton Official Email Communication to Physicians Explores Interest in Command Spanish.

This is an official Seton communication sent on behalf of the medical staff of the Seton Family of Hospitals.  It has been sent only after official approval was sanctioned by the Seton Network Medical Executive Committee (NMEC).

We would like to make the Seton Med Staff aware of the potential to take advantage of a unique opportunity that recently arose and to gauge your interest in participating in a program that we hope to be able to offer as a result. 

 Seton recently chartered a team to explore whether federal stimulus dollars were available for the purpose of helping us to fund some of our internal workforce development needs.  As we have investigated further, we have come to learn that there appears to be a not insignificant amount of money available to institutions that seek to teach their staff so-called Command Spanish.  As you might imagine, Spanish language skill instruction represents one of the most highly requested training programs among Seton staff, and the potential availability of these $$$ could greatly enhance our ability to provide this service for them.

As it turns out, we have also become aware that similar dollars exist for the purpose of training our physicians in Command Spanish, and we are interested in hearing from those of you who may have an interest in participating in such a program.  Be aware that this is an 8 hour program that would be taught on site at a Seton facility(ies).  The hours of instruction would be very flexible, and could easily be scheduled during evenings or weekends. Though the number of hours of instruction given at any one time is also subject to a wide variety of considerations, the instructors (from > Austin Community College) recommend that they not be subdivided into periods of less than 4 hours at a time.  The cost ($250) would be underwritten through the grant (though, of course, the feasibility of offering the program in the first place depends upon our ability to obtain that stimulus money.

There are two other caveats that you will need to consider as you contemplate whether you wish to respond to this email.  First, Command Spanish is NOT Conversational Spanish. The purpose of the program lies in teaching you to use the language skills to obtain information during the history and physical and hospital/office visit intake processes so that you can communicate effectively with the patient.  The second is that the federal grant dollars involved are paid by the ‘seat,’ and absence of any attendee will result in a demand by the government that money be refunded for that portion of the course not attended on the pretense that conditions of the grant (full participation at all sessions) is violated if there was less than 100% attendance.  For that reason, Seton may very well ask physician participants to pre-pay up front and to be reimbursed in part or in full dependent upon attendance by those who sign up.

We are actively assessing how many physicians from among the med staff may be interested in this program. Feel free to call or email one of us for questions.  A timely response is requested (link below); as we will not pursue these dollars if sufficient participation by the med staff is not anticipated. Thanks!

INTERESTED?  Command Spanish Notification Sign-up

Frank Mazza, MD
VP/Chief Patient Safety Officer/Associate Chief Medical Officer
Seton Family of Hospitals
FMazza@seton.org
512-324-3567

Yvonne VanDyke, RN, MSN
Vice President, Nursing Education, Practice, Research
Administrator, Clinical > Education Center at Brackenridge
Seton Family of Hospitals
Yvandyke@seton.org
512-324-8932