Recognize the positive when changing your practice
When undertaking organizational change, focusing only on what is wrong in your practice can create a negative atmosphere. But taking the time to recognize what is positive in your practice can help your care team see more clearly what gives life, vitality and joy to their daily work —and make sure those aspects remain.“Appreciative inquiry”—developed at Case Western University in the 1980s—is an approach to change that identifies and builds on what is already working well in an organization to move a practice toward positive change. It uses unconditional positive questions to identify what is best in an o rganiza...
Source: AMA Wire - October 12, 2016 Category: Journals (General) Authors: Timothy Smith Source Type: news
Error-reporting confidentiality threatened in court
A case before the Supreme Court of Iowa holds the confidentiality of peer-review materials in the balance. Will the court uphold an Iowa statute meant to maintain confidentiality of such documents in order to reduce error leading to morbidity and mortality and improve public health?What happened in Iowa
At stake inWillard v. State of Iowa is whether the Iowa Morbidity and Mortality Study Law (MMSL), a type of peer-review statute meant to keep peer-review information and materials confidential, created a privilege against legal discovery of a hospital ’s patient safety network incident report (PSN) and related documents....
Source: AMA Wire - October 12, 2016 Category: Journals (General) Authors: Timothy Smith Source Type: news
Payment model proposal process for MACRA begins
The Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) established the Physician-Focused Payment Model Technical Advisory Committee (PTAC) to make recommendations to the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on physician-focused payment models (PFPM) —and the PTAC is now preparing to accept proposal submissions.
HHS is required by MACRA to establish criteria for PFPMs and to respond to the recommendations of the PTAC. Individual physicians and stakeholder entities can now profess intent to submit their proposed models to the PTAC for consideration. The PTAC will evaluate whether or not each pr...
Source: AMA Wire - October 11, 2016 Category: Journals (General) Authors: Timothy Smith Source Type: news
Court case tests New York City sodium warnings rule
The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (NYC DOHMH) recently adopted a rule requiring larger restaurant chains to post icons on their menus warning patrons of dishes that contain more than the US government ’s daily limit for sodium. The National Restaurant Association (NRA) sued to block the rule and lost, but it now seeks to reverse the state supreme court’s decision. Besides the millions of vulnerable New Yorkers who are in need of the warnings, the case has implications for medical and public h ealth organizations nationwide.What happened in New York
The NYC DOHMH adopted the rule in response to ...
Source: AMA Wire - October 11, 2016 Category: Journals (General) Authors: Timothy Smith Source Type: news
From Zika to gun violence, CME sessions at 2016 Interim Meeting
Numerous continuing medical education (CME) courses will be available for credit at the 2016 AMA Interim Meeting in Orlando this November. Among the hot topics: gun violence, the Zika virus and physician burnout.
This year ’s meeting features expert speakers from public health organizations, physician practices and government agencies. Education sessions and forums sponsored by AMA sections and special groups are open to all members and many offer CME credit, including:Emerging issues in medical staff affairs: 8-9 a.m., Friday, Nov. 11
This session will provide an overview of trends and tips on how medical staffs can ...
Source: AMA Wire - October 11, 2016 Category: Journals (General) Authors: Timothy Smith Source Type: news
Health professionals with disabilities: Ethics and progress
Though nearly 20 percent of the U.S. population has a disability, health professionals and medical students with disabilities still encounter roadblocks throughout training and their careers. What are the ethical considerations that could initiate progress for health professionals and medical students with disabilities?
Take a moment and consider this situation: An elderly and esteemed surgeon needs assistance to safely complete his or her cases. How should his or her colleagues respond?
A. Report the surgeon to the licensure board
B. Bring the issue to the attention of the department chair
C. Conf...
Source: AMA Wire - October 7, 2016 Category: Journals (General) Authors: Troy Parks Source Type: news
Med students plunge into ACOs, patient-centered medical homes
Medical schools are enhancing students ’ experiences by embedding them into patient-centered medical homes and accountable care organizations (ACO)—two care models changing health care delivery. Explore the work some schools are doing with the AMA’s Accelerating Change in Medical Education Consortium.
Immersing students in these care models is part of the schools ’ work with the AMA’s Accelerating Change in Medical Education Consortium. The consortium, working to modernize and reshape the way physicians are trained, brings leaders form schools together to share ideas and experiences with innovative programs de...
Source: AMA Wire - October 7, 2016 Category: Journals (General) Authors: Troy Parks Source Type: news
The “structure” of the medical school of the future
With the advent of dramatic changes in how medicine is taught —from active learning to interprofessional education—medical schools are now rethinking the design of their buildings and classrooms as well. Learn how the University of North Dakota (UND) approached building the medical school of the future for its new School of Medicine& Health Sciences (SMHS), completed this summer.
UND SMHS started its patient-centered learning curriculum nearly 20 years ago. The school has had a required course in interprofessional education (IPE) since 2006, and in 2012 it added team-based learning to the curriculum.“As a school of ...
Source: AMA Wire - October 6, 2016 Category: Journals (General) Authors: Timothy Smith Source Type: news
The physician of the future: More like da Vinci
Which skills and qualities should typify the physician of the future? Answering this question is crucial for medical schools, especially given the many forces acting on medical education, including health care funding, the impact of technology and evolving patient users. According to one expert, the answer is clear but also complex: The physician of the future will need to be a little bit of everything.
Meg Gaines, JD, LLM, is a distinguished clinical professor of law at the University of Wisconsin –Madison. She is also a co-founder ofThe Center for Patient Partnerships, which trains students from the schools of Law, Me...
Source: AMA Wire - October 5, 2016 Category: Journals (General) Authors: Timothy Smith Source Type: news
Preparing for upcoming Medicare changes? Tools to help your practice
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is slated to release its Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) final rule by Nov. 1. While the program does not affect Medicare payments until 2019, physicians need to prepare for the changes now. To help your practice prepare for this historic change, the AMA has been developing a collection of valuable online tools and resources.
The newAMA Payment Model Evaluator helps you determine how MACRA will impact your practice. After answering questions and following the steps —which should take ten minutes or less—you’ll receive a brief assessment as wel...
Source: AMA Wire - October 5, 2016 Category: Journals (General) Authors: Troy Parks Source Type: news
Accreditor lays out plan for resident well-being
Dr. Brigham started with Lewin ’s equation:B = f(P, E). It states that behavior is a function of a person and his or her environment. He then pointed to its implications for physicians and physician well-being. “Think about what we expose our residents to: death and dying, other people’s secrets, other people’s sickness, depression and anxiety. But it’s not all depressing.”
Timothy Brigham, MDiv, PhD, chief of staff and senior vice president in the Department of Education at the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), was speaking to representatives from the 32 member schools of the A...
Source: AMA Wire - October 4, 2016 Category: Journals (General) Authors: Timothy Smith Source Type: news
Finding tech passion in an unlikely place
With many gains in health information technology over the past decade, newly appointed National Coordinator for Health IT Vindell Washington, MD, took time at Health 2.0 last week to describe his first experience with health technology, what it means for the health care community and new tools for physicians and entrepreneurs.
Dr. Washington found his passion for health care technology as a captain in the U.S. Army. He was stationed in Haiti leading the emergency department in the 28th combat support hospital when a patient presented with “a fever, a rash, a really unusual constellation of symptoms,” he said.
Unable ...
Source: AMA Wire - October 4, 2016 Category: Journals (General) Authors: Troy Parks Source Type: news
Reports show 2017 Medicare payment adjustments
Two new reports are now available with information on 2015 cost and quality data that indicate which physicians or practices will see related Medicare payment adjustments in 2017.
The 2015 Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS) Feedback Reports and 2015 Annual Quality and Resource Use Reports (QRUR) were released on Sept. 26. The Centers for Medicare& Medicaid Services (CMS) began mailing 2015 PQRS penalty letters to physicians on that date as well.What ’s in the reports
A penalty letter is your notification that you are scheduled to receive a two percent penalty in 2017 based on 2015 PQRS reporting. Letters are onl...
Source: AMA Wire - October 3, 2016 Category: Journals (General) Authors: Troy Parks Source Type: news
Health care and population health: A team sport
In conclusion, the past is prologue. We can do better. We can put joy back in medicine. Our first class of medical students, they’re the most excited people. They’re not burned out. So let’s not burn them out.”By AMA staff writer Tim Smith (Source: AMA Wire)
Source: AMA Wire - October 2, 2016 Category: Journals (General) Authors: Troy Parks Source Type: news
Patient-first technology: Improving care for the chronically ill
Prevention is one of the most important aspects of health care, but what about those patients who already have serious chronic illnesses that do not have a cure? Harvey Fineberg, MD, president of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, spoke last week at Health 2.0 in Silicon Valley reminding entrepreneurs that we need to develop solutions for patients with chronic illnesses to live happier, more comfortable lives.
Since his time as President of the Institute of Medicine from 2002 to 2014, Dr. Fineberg said he ’s been working toward understanding where and how a patient-centered health system is possible and where t...
Source: AMA Wire - October 2, 2016 Category: Journals (General) Authors: Troy Parks Source Type: news
