Below are the November Medical Staff Updates. As a reminder, all providers must complete the attestation by November 30 at the bottom of this page.
Double Identifiers
Throughout the healthcare industry, failure to correctly identify patients can result in serious harm to the patient. To promote proper and accurate identification of all patients as they move throughout Kaleida Health, policy TX.07, “Patient Identification,” outlines the appropriate patient identification process.
Each patient receives an identification (ID) band upon admission with identifying information such as the patient’s name, medical record (MR) number, financial information number (FIN), date of birth, age, sex, admission date, patient status and bar code.
Prior to beginning any treatment or service, providers must validate patient identification using two acceptable patient identifiers: name and date of birth. The best way to validate a patient’s identity is to speak directly with the patient or the patient’s family, and compare information on the ID band with the information on the EMR screen or a document from the patient’s medical record.
Semiannual Meeting Review
On October 14, Kaleida Health hosted the Medical/Dental Staff Semiannual Officers Meeting. George Matthews, MD, president of the Medical/Dental Staff, reviewed the importance of signing physician orders and introduced the revised AMOK (All Medical Records Overdue at Kaleida) process. Michael Beecher, MD, secretary of the Medical/Dental Staff, discussed the updated Medical/Dental Staff Bylaws, which were approved by the members.
In addition, Jody Lomeo, president and CEO, David Hughes, MD, MPH, executive vice president and chief medical officer, Maralyn Spittler, vice president and chief quality officer, and Francisco Vasquez, PhD, secretary of the Kaleida Health Board of Directors, shared updates about Kaleida Health and the recent DNV accreditation survey results.
For those unable to attend the meeting, please review the full presentations here:
- Physician Orders and AMOK (PDF)
- Medical Staff Bylaws (PDF)
- Quality Update (PDF)
2015 Annual Dues
Kaleida Health’s Medical/Dental Staff Office notices will be emailed to you in early January 2015. New this year, providers will be able to remit dues using a credit card. Directions will be included in the dues notice. Checks will still be accepted.
Prescription Plus
To ensure patients’ transition from hospital to home is as successful and easy as possible, Kaleida Health is launching Prescription Plus, a new service designed to help patients return home with all their prescribed medications.
The ultimate goal of the program, which launches this month, is to ensure that prescriptions are filled and ready for patients to pick up in the hospital’s pharmacy when they are discharged. This program will begin at Buffalo General Medical Center on 14 North/South, 13 South and the VIS, and will ultimately expand to the entire facility, followed by other Kaleida Health hospitals.
An important feature of Prescriptions Plus is the addition of Prescriptions Plus representatives. The representatives, who are certified pharmacy technicians, will visit each patient prior to discharge to promote the benefits of the program, facilitate the filling of prescriptions and coordinate their insurance coverage.
Studies have shown that patients leaving the hospital with their prescriptions already filled are more likely to be compliant in taking their medications, which ultimately reduces readmissions.
Prescriptions Plus is another way Kaleida Health is improving the patient experience by focusing on their needs from start to finish.
MyKaleida Posters
Clinical staff may notice new posters in patient rooms across Kaleida Health promoting MyKaleida, the patient portal that provides patients and their family members fast, secure and easy access to their clinical information.
Physicians can sign up themselves and also talk with patients about the benefits of MyKaleida to view lab results and monitor their health records.
Physician Survey
As a reminder, Kaleida Health will once again solicit feedback from providers in the Physician Engagement Survey administered by Press Ganey.
On November 10, 2014, Press Ganey will be sending the online survey to the kaleidahealth.org email account of all employed and contracted physicians, as well as those with more than 25 cases from September 1, 2013 to August 31, 2014.
The goal is to have at least a 50 percent response rate by the end of the survey on December 10, 2014.
Your feedback is very important to us, so if you receive an invitation to participate in this year’s survey, please take a few minutes to answer the questions.
The survey is completely confidential and Kaleida Health’s leadership will never see individual survey responses or names of respondents.
Thank you for your continued commitment to Kaleida Health and the patients we serve.
Flu Shot Reminder
The weather is getting cooler, and influenza season is quickly approaching. Before the New York State (NYS) Commissioner of Health declares influenza prevalent in our region, Kaleida Health encourages providers to protect themselves and others by proactively obtaining their influenza vaccine as soon as possible.
Those who decline vaccination will be required to wear a mask throughout influenza season once it is officially declared by the NYS Commissioner of Health.
For more information, including Frequently Asked Questions, vaccination declination forms and Employee Health office hours, visit Employee Health’s website.
Medical Staff Attestation - November 2014
By submitting this attestation, I confirm that as a member of the medical staff I have read, understand and will comply with the information included in this email from Kaleida Health.
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