Below are the December Medical Staff Updates. As a reminder, all providers must complete the attestation at the bottom of this page by December 31.
Medical Leadership Message
As we look back upon 2016 and reflect upon our continued transformation into a high-quality, high-value integrated healthcare system, we would like to thank each of you for your engagement, leadership, and commitment to patients.
This year our top quality priority was to decrease our hospital acquired infections. We are on track for a 30% reduction in the number of patients infected with one of our top five HAI’s (CLABSI, CAUTI, C. diff., Colon SSI, and MRSA bacteremia). Another significant quality 
initiative was to standardize and improve the treatment of sepsis. This year we have improved our 3-hour sepsis bundle compliance by 54% over 2015.
These accomplishments aren’t possible without an engaged medical staff leading our quality efforts. With a 56% response rate, the 2016 physician engagement survey demonstrated a continued upward trend in both engagement and alignment. Overall, our engagement rank increased from the 24th to the 29th percentile and alignment increased from the 32nd to the 39th percentile. Looking forward to 2017, even deeper physician engagement and involvement in decision making will be crucial to our success.
In 2017, a new Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus will be born. The Oishei Children’s Outpatient Center will open in January with a select group of outpatient offices in the Conventus building. Moves into the outpatient center will continue in April when UBMD moves their outpatient and administrative offices into the 4th and 5th floors. In October we will complete our outpatient center moves just ahead of the opening of the new Oishei Children’s Hospital (OCH) in November. OCH is currently 76% complete with many of the floors taking shape with flooring and ceiling installation, drywall completion and painting, and interior elevators coming online. Along with the new Jacob’s School of Medicine, we will enter a new era of collaboration, integration, synergy, and most importantly, innovation. We as a medical staff will lead this healthcare transformation in Western New York.
On behalf of the entire executive team we wish you and your families a very happy holiday season.
Warm regards,
David Hughes, MD, MPH
Chief Medical Officer
Kaleida Health
Kenneth Snyder, MD, PhD
Vice President, Physician Quality
Kaleida Health
Colin McMahon, MD
Chief Medical Officer
Buffalo General Medical Center/Gates Vascular Institute
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
Message from the President of the Medical/Dental Staff
As we enter the holiday season, I would like to take a moment to reflect on one aspect of our profession. We have always aspired to justice; the Hippocratic Oath adjures us: “whatever houses I may visit, I will come for the benefit of the sick.” As healthcare professionals, we strive to treat all of our patients equally and to the best of our abilities. The care we provide is independent of a patient’s race, color, gender, sexual orientation, political views or other such factors.
I have a particular respect for the works of Moses Maimonides, a physician, who was the most important Jewish philosopher of the Middle Ages. His writings cover an enormous range of topics, including medicine. In this brief excerpt from his Oath, Maimonides calls for us to be caring, focused and just.
“Inspire me with love for my art and for Thy creatures. Do not allow thirst for profit, ambition for renown and admiration, to interfere with my profession, for these are the enemies of truth and of love for mankind and they can lead astray in the great task of attending to the welfare of Thy creatures. Preserve the strength of my body and of my soul that they ever be ready to cheerfully help and support rich and poor, good and bad, enemy as well as friend. In the sufferer let me see only the human being...Let me never be absent-minded. May no strange thoughts divert my attention at the bedside of the sick, or disturb my mind in its silent labors, for great and sacred are the thoughtful deliberations required to preserve the lives and health of Thy creatures.” [Translated by Harry Friedenwald, Bulletin of the Johns Hopkins Hospital 28: 260-261, (1917)]
In this season of change, let us all stay steadfast in our highest ideals.
I wish you all a healthy and happy holiday season!
Peter Winkelstein, MD, MS, MBA, FAAP
Medical/Dental Staff President
Kaleida Health
Amendment to the New York Code of Rules and Regulations Part 405
In the near future, Clinical Summaries will no longer come to your office based on changes in the regulations. All information in the Clinical Summary should be in the Discharge Summary and if not, is readily accessible in InfoClique. We are striving to add fields to the Discharge Summary for pending laboratory tests and pending radiology exams to make you aware of this critical information at the time of discharge.
Influenza Vaccination Status of Healthcare Personnel
It is time to prepare for the 2016-2017 influenza season. Kaleida Health will continue to follow the New York State Department of Health mandate titled, “Regulation and Prevention of Influenza Transmission by Healthcare and Residential Facility and Agency Personnel” to document the vaccination status of healthcare personnel.
As outlined in the mandate, the vaccination status of all healthcare personnel must be documented, and all unvaccinated personnel must wear a surgical mask at all times while in areas where patients or residents are typically present during the entire influenza season as determined by the New York State Commissioner of Health. Masks will be available at all main entrances of Kaleida Health’s hospitals throughout influenza season.
Obtaining Your Influenza Vaccine
Flu clinics will be held throughout the fall by both Kaleida Health’s Employee Health Department and the Visiting Nursing Association of Western New York (VNA). Vaccines will also be available at each site’s Employee Health office during scheduled hours for those unable to attend a clinic. The clinic schedule is available on Employee Health’s website on KaleidaScope.
Providers must have their Kaleida Health ID badge to receive the vaccine from Employee Health. Providers will need both their Kaleida Health ID badge and health insurance card if utilizing a VNA- sponsored clinic.
ID Badge Sticker Requirement
At the time of vaccination, a Kaleida Health Employee Health nurse or VNA administering nurse will apply a flu sticker on the right lower corner of the Kaleida Health ID badge to provide visual verification of vaccination.
Providers vaccinated by a facility or provider other than Kaleida Health or the VNA will need to bring official proof of vaccination to Kaleida Health’s Employee Health Department in order to receive their sticker of verification.
Those who decline the influenza vaccine must complete a “Declination of Influenza Vaccine” form. Anyone who declines the vaccine due to a medical condition will also need to complete the “DOH Medical Exemption Statement” form. Details for both forms are available on Employee Health’s website on KaleidaScope.
Employee Health, or a site designee, will apply a red sticker on the right lower corner of the Kaleida Health ID badge of those who decline vaccination.
Once influenza season is officially declared, all providers must have either a flu sticker or a red sticker on their ID badge when in a Kaleida Health facility. Those with a red sticker must also wear a mask in areas where patients or residents are typically present.
Submitting Proof of Vaccination to the Medical Staff Office
This year, Kaleida Health’s Medical Staff Office will be tracking providers’ vaccination status. All providers must submit a copy of their proof of vaccination or declination of vaccination to the Medical Staff Office. Please scan and email documentation to Rosie Light at RLight@KaleidaHealth.org or fax to 859-5592.
Medical Staff Attestation - December 2016
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 in accordance with Kaleida Health policy MED.41 as approved by the Medical Executive Committee.
| Fields marked with an asterisk (*) are required. |
|
|