Below are the May Medical Staff Updates. As a reminder, all providers must complete the attestation at the bottom of this page by May 31.
Medical Leadership Message
Leading with CARE – The Physician Perspective
Over the past two months, all Kaleida Health employees and volunteers have been introduced to a message that sets the standard of care for patients, families and coworkers. The message highlights the fact that every person in the organization is truly a caregiver. Leading with CARE is a call to action that places the patient at the center of all we do. The second, soon-to-be released, installment of these educational sessions will be directed at all providers. The over-arching message will remain the same, but the content will focus on the role of a physician/provider during a patient’s journey.
The sessions are anticipated to begin in early June and will be made available to medical students, residents, advanced practice providers and physicians. Although some of you have already attended the initial program, we encourage you to join your colleagues in the upcoming sessions as well. The venue for these sessions will include medical staff meetings, department meetings and grand rounds. Stay tuned for exact dates and locations.
Leading with CARE is an organizational imperative that is structured to help you understand the mission and vision of Kaleida Health and how you play an extremely important role in your patient’s and the organization’s mutual success. Provider involvement and engagement is a crucial element of realizing our potential to advance the health of our community.
We look forward to every provider joining with us and committing to lead with CARE.
David Hughes, MD, MPH
Chief Medical Officer
Kaleida Health
Colin McMahon, MD
Chief Medical Officer
Buffalo General Medical Center
David Pierce, MD, FACEP
Chief Medical Officer
Millard Fillmore Suburban Hospital and DeGraff Memorial Hospital
Stephen Turkovich, MD
Chief Medical Officer
Women & Children’s Hospital of Buffalo
Kamil Alpsan, MD
Site Medical Director
DeGraff Memorial Hospital
Imprivata Cortext
On May 5, 2015, Kaleida Health will launch Imprivata Cortext, a secure messaging application that allows healthcare professionals and colleagues to exchange messages and photos in full compliance with HIPAA requirements.
Using this application will provide efficient, real-time communication of Protected Health Information (PHI) for the purpose of facilitating collaboration and continuity of inpatient care. This will ultimately improve the patient experience and quality of care.
Imprivata Cortext is available as an iOS or Android application that runs on smartphones and tablets, or as a desktop application that runs on any workstation.
All providers will receive an email from istcortextadmin@kaleidahealth.org containing their user name, password and the link to download Imprivata Cortext to a mobile device. Please follow the instructions outlined in the email to sign up.
Imprivata Cortex Guides are available for Android and iOS users. For more information, watch this brief video that demonstrates an overview of Imprivata Cortext.
Annual Dues
Medical Staff dues must be paid by May 31, 2015. Providers can now pay their dues online using a credit card or send in a check. Privileges will be suspended for those who do not pay their dues by the end of this month.
To pay dues online:
- Log into InfoClique (If you do not have InfoClique, please fill out the online access form at https://www.infoclique.com)
- If using KaleidaScope to access InfoClique, select the Home tab
- Select Fees & Dues in the Medical/Dental Staff box on the left side of the page
- Enter all necessary information to make the payment
Semiannual Meeting Review
On April 14, 2015, Kaleida Health hosted the Medical/Dental Staff Semiannual Meeting. The group was happy to have James Merlino, MD, president and chief medical officer of the strategic consulting division of Press Ganey, as the keynote speaker.
As you will see in the video presentation, Dr. Merlino described his transition from a full time practicing colorectal surgeon, to chief quality officer at the Cleveland Clinic, to his current position. Sharing examples, personal experience and relevant statistics, Dr. Merlino discussed the challenges and misconceptions about communication between physicians and patients. He also touched on how this might impact value-based purchasing in the future. His message was simple, yet powerful: with healthcare reform challenges, physician engagement and patient experience are key to an organization’s success.
Prior to Dr. Merlino’s presentation, George Matthews, MD, president of the Medical/Dental Staff and Jody Lomeo, president and CEO of Kaleida Health, provided updates on Kaleida Health’s medical affairs and operations. Jamal Ghani, system chief operating officer, also talked about Leading with CARE, impacting patient experience within Kaleida Health, and developing the upcoming provider education, which will be led by David Pierce, MD, chief medical officer, Millard Fillmore Suburban Hospital and David Hughes, MD, MPH, chief medical officer, Kaleida Health.
Healthcare Champions
Every year, Business First recognizes a group of exceptional healthcare professionals in Western New York for their compassion, innovation, strategy, research and care. The following Kaleida Health award recipients were honored in a special section of the April 10 edition of Business First:
- Vi-Anne Antrum, RN, FACHE, vice president and lead chief nursing officer, Buffalo General Medical Center
- Donald Boyd, senior vice president of business development, Kaleida Health
- Cindy Carey, critical care nurse, Millard Fillmore Suburban Hospital
- Donald Hickey, MD, attending physician, surgical intensive care, Millard Fillmore Suburban Hospital
- Jonathan Swiatkowski, executive vice president and chief financial officer, Kaleida Health
Congratulations to the following members of Kaleida Health’s Medical Staff who also made the list:
- Roseanne Berger, MD
- Sandra Block, MD
- Michael Ferrick, MD
- Joshua Jones, MD
- David Miller, MD, MBA
- Maureen Montgomery, MD
- Kelly Naab, NP
- David Pawlowski, MD
- Thomas Schenk, MD
- Fuad Sheriff, MD, FACP
- Raul Vazquez, MD
Cardiac Rhythm Management
A collaborative decision by cardiac electrophysiologists (EP) and hospital leadership at the Gates Vascular Institute for cardiac rhythm management products will result in an estimated $1.7 million in savings each year for Kaleida Health.
The EP physicians – Hiroko Beck, MD; Ashish Bhatia, MD; Chee H. Kim, MD; Grzegorz P. Rozmus, MD; Donald F. Switzer, MD – chose to shift market share to Medtronic. This selection process included price point reductions for products and rebates for devices such as pacemakers and implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICD).
Moving forward, Kaleida Health is committed to engaging physicians with the Value Analysis team to create strategic vendor partnerships. Similar initiatives are currently underway for spine, total joint, neurosurgery and stenting.
Chiefs of Service Reports
Family Medicine – Submitted by Andrea T. Manyon, MD, FAAFP
Kaleida Health has 98 family physicians on its medical staff. Recent changing practice patterns see family doctors referring inpatients to hospitalist services while maintaining their referral patterns. In 2014, family doctors cared for 4,200 patients at Kaleida Health, utilizing 2.2 consultants per hospitalization. Complication rates were lower than expected when examining the year-end Crimson database. Resident teams conduct chart audits, which are incorporated into their weekly teaching sessions. The chief of service reviews any mortality or morbidity records requiring attention.
The University at Buffalo Department of Family Medicine (DFM)faculty providers care for patients at Kaleida Health’s facilities and train 42 residents in hospitals under the Great Lakes Health umbrella. The Primary Care Research Institute (PCRI) of the DFM maintains scholarly productivity, including 33 original articles and 26 presentations in 2014. Grant funding has averaged $5 million per year for more than 10 years. The PCRI has been embedded in the DSRIP development process, specializing in primary care safety net analysis, practice assessment to meet Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH) guidelines, and a community needs assessment addressing the lack of population health management to prevent avoidable hospitalization.
The DFM also makes a significant contribution to medical student education, directing the first year doctoring course, a six-week, third-year clerkship and global health programs.
Family Medicine is transforming. A recent Merritt Hawkins study found that the direct revenue generated by a family physician for the affiliated hospital has increased to $2 million. This includes only direct referrals by family doctors for hospitalization, procedures, testing and treatment. This is in parallel to the trend of hospital employment of family physicians.
Department of Rehabilitation Medicine – Submitted by Philip Kuruvilla, MD
The Kaleida Health Rehabilitation Department consists of two Medical Rehab Units (MRUs) – one at Buffalo General Medical Center/Gates Vascular Institute (BGMC/GVI) and the other at DeGraff Memorial Hospital (DMH). With 36 beds all together, the department provides inpatient consult service at BGMV/GVI, Millard Fillmore Suburban Hospital and DMH. Rehab screeners assist in MRU screening and admissions coordination. In addition, there is EMG/NCS service at BGMC, and outpatient practice at BGMC and Buffalo Medical Group offices.
The inpatient medical rehab personnel are led by three physiatrists, one nurse practitioner and one rehab director. The inpatient team includes approximately 70 therapists and ancillary staff, including physical, occupational, and speech therapists, nutritionists, social workers, and discharge planners.
Rehab Medicine is all about team work and daily communication between the physiatrists and ancillary staff. Patient care is interdisciplinary and highly coordinated, and includes weekly multiple team conferences to discuss medical status, functional progress and goals, and discharge planning. Admission to MRU is based on specific medical and functional criteria, as well as goals oriented toward medical optimization, functional independence and safe community discharge. Hospital-based MRUs have more intensive daily medical management balanced with intensive multidisciplinary therapies (three hour per day) as opposed to subacute rehab facilities. Most of the department’s patients include neuro/stroke, neurosurgical, complex vascular and heart surgery cases, amputees and critical illness-related debility.
To improve quality, the department participates in monthly M&M peer review and meetings. The Kaleida Health MRUs are fully accredited by the Center for Accreditation of Rehab Facilities (CARF) for both general and stroke rehab. Rehab outcome measures are monitored and improved through subscription to Uniform Data Systems (UDS), and the department’s numbers are at or above regional and national benchmarks in most criteria. The department is now preparing for the next CARF reaccreditation which is expected by fall of 2015.
Policy Updates for Providers
Please select this link to review full descriptions of this month’s updates. The policy links below are accessible from a Kaleida Health computer only. For additional assistance, please contact Amy Palombo at apalombo@kaleidahealth.org or 716-859-8447.
Revised Policies/ SOP:
ADM.45 – Scribe Services
HR.201 – Severance
RM.3 – Serious Events
TX.10 – Restraints
Medical Staff Attestation - May 2015
By submitting this attestation, I confirm that as a member of the medical staff I have read and understand the information included in this email from Kaleida Health.
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