Inside Duke Medicine

Timothy Collins: Excellent clinician, fresh ideas

What sets him apart from his peers ... is his unwavering commitment to better the operations and structure of the clinic.

Timothy Collins, M.D., Morreene Road Clinic, received the Provider Category Quarterly Ambulatory Strength, Hope & Caring Award.  One of his nominators said:

"I would like to take this opportunity to nominate Dr. Timothy Collins for the Strength Hope and Caring award under the Physician category.

Dr. Collins is an excellent clinician, putting him in a category with many of his peers here at Duke. He sees a very difficult population being a headache specialist, but receives many compliments for his astuteness and expertise. What sets him apart from his peers, however, is his unwavering commitment to better the operations and structure of the clinic. More than any other provider in our clinic, he is always volunteering to help in creation of new policies, be the guinea pig for new procedures/ideas, or simply step up when clinic management needs help, support, or physician input.

In our physician leadership meetings, he often has great ideas that he brings with him from his days in private practice, and always helps us to create solutions that are applicable in the Duke world. For instance, even though he won't be the primary user of the document, he volunteered, without being asked, to help us create the trilateral agreement that would be used to manage patients on narcotics.

More impressive, however, has been the role he has had in e-prescribing roll out for Clinic 1L. Morreene Road, where Dr. Collins practices, went live on e-prescribing in April and Dr. Collins quickly became an advocate for the system. In true Dr. Collins form, he has been working with the team to improve aspects of the functionality, training and roll out When he heard of the coordination issues we were having with Clinic lL, he volunteered, out of the blue, to come over and train all the Neurology and Neurosurgery providers, in conjunction with the eprescribe training team. He volunteered to set up morning and evening sessions, come over on his lunch break and admin day, and offer up his clinic as a learning lab. He coordinated 3 massive training sessions prior to our go-live date, and while I wasn't at any of them, I received feedback that he I did a fantastic job.

Since we have gone live, there have been many providers in Clinic 1L that did not get the training but want to now use the application Guess who stepped up to the plate and volunteered to do more training...Dr Collins! He is also coordinating with a couple of the neurosurgeons to do 1:1 training to better accommodate their schedule. I just got an email from him where he offered up his schedule to any and all that wanted training and help; he is giving away his lunchtime, his admin day, his mornings at 6:30 and his evenings to fit in any colleague that needs help. After this is all said and done, he will have conducted 5 training sessions and at least 5 1:1 training sessions, all in his "free time".

Dr. Collins didn't have to volunteer to help train everyone else that is nowhere near his job description, and as one of the highest volume physicians in our clinic, one might argue he doesn't even have time to do that. But, because the success of the rollout was important to the clinic, to management and to his peers, he has stepped up in a way that I cannot even begin to thank him for- And for that, I think he is most deserving of the Strength, Hope and Caring Award."