2009 Interim Education Program
George R. Brown Convention Center
November 5-7, 2009
Houston, TX
How your medical staff should organize to effectively perform in the evolving environment
Thursday, Nov. 5, 12:30-2:00 p.m,. George R. Brown Convention Center - Room 310 A-E
How your medical staff should organize to effectively perform in the evolving environment
1.5 AMA PRA Category 1 CreditsTM
Faculty: Rosalio Lopez, MD
As Health Care Reform continues to evolve and change, hospital medical staffs will inevitably change. In order to effectively perform in the shifting environment and to ensure patient safety and quality of care it is critical to organize your medical staff accordingly. In this educational program you will be armed with the knowledge to organize your hospital’s medical staff based on both consumerism and patient safety. This program will demonstrate how to compete and get organized in today’s challenging environment in order to successfully perform as physicians and provide quality care to your patients.
Learning Objectives:
1. Discuss how to organize your medical staff in the current environment.
2. Demonstrate how your medical staff can compete in today’s healthcare setting.
3. Create effective strategies to ensure patient safety and quality of care.
Promoting a Culture of Safety
Thursday, Nov. 5, 2:15-3:45 p.m., George R. Brown Convention Center - Room 310 A-E
Promoting a Culture of Safety
1.5 AMA PRA Category 1 CreditsTM
Faculty: J. Bryan Sexton, MD
According to the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), “in a culture of safety, people are not merely encouraged to work toward change; they take action when it is needed.” Leadership is a key ingredient in creating a culture of safety. Organizations can only improve upon their safety with direction and guidance from their leaders. Senior staff must be the driving force behind promoting a culture of safety through demonstrating their own commitment to safety of care and providing the necessary resources to foster an environment conducive to change. This program will demonstrate how healthcare professionals can work together as a team to promote a culture of safety and ultimately enhance patient care.
Learning Objectives:
1. Discuss the attributes of successful leaders.
2. Explain how to work together as a team of healthcare professionals, e.g. nursing, administration and medical staff to ensure patient safety.
3. Demonstrate how to identify problems, fashion solutions to those problems and implement changes which ultimately improve safety.
Legal Challenge to an Economic Credentialing Policy
Friday, Nov. 6, 12:00-1:00 p.m., George R. Brown Convention Center - Room 360 A-E
Legal Challenge to an Economic Credentialing Policy
1.5 AMA PRA Category 1 CreditsTM
Faculty: Bruce E. Murphy, MD
The patient-physician relationship is at the heart of medicine. This sacred relationship is the cornerstone of physicians’ practices’. According to the Arkansas Supreme Court in Baptist Health vs. Murphy, 365 Ark. 115, 131, 226, S.W.3d 800, 813 (2006), “the relationship is forged in trust, confidence, rapport, and intimate knowledge. Dr. Bruce Murphy and the other plaintiffs testified that the relationship develops over time, through the care and treatment of chronic conditions and traumatic medical emergencies, with the physician learning the patient’s history and exercising professional judgment in evaluating the patient’s complaints and treating the patient’s ailments.”
The Baptist Health, Arkansas, economic credentialing policy, which was adopted in 2003, was successfully challenged by Dr. Bruce Murphy, 11 other members of his practice, the American Medical Association (AMA) and the Arkansas Medical Society (AMS). This policy allowed the hospital system to interfere with the patient-physician relationship by denying hospital-admitting privileges to medical staff members based on their financial interests.
This educational program will provide an overview of this specific case and the experience Dr. Murphy and his partners faced confronting this challenge. The importance of the patient-physician relationship will be discussed as well as the economic credentialing policy. Finally this program will arm physicians with the knowledge and skills to confront a difficult challenge a medical staff may encounter.
Learning Objectives:
1. Discuss the importance of the patient-physician relationship in relation to a legal case.
2. Describe a Medical Staff Economic Credentialing Policy
3. Explain a landmark lawsuit.
4. Identify strategies to stay unified and focused as a group.
Will Physicians Lead the Way in the Development of Accountable Care Organizations?
Friday, Nov. 6, 1:30-3:00 p.m., George R. Brown Convention Center - Room 310 A-E
Will Physicians Lead the Way in the Development of Accountable Care Organizations?
1.5 AMA PRA Category 1 CreditsTM
Faculty: Joseph Corkery, MD, Lahey Clinic (MA); Gary Piefer, MD, WellMed Medical Group(TX); Mark Shields, MD, Advocate Healthcare (IL)
In a frequently-cited article in The New Yorker, physician author Atul Gwande, MD wrote, “As America struggles to extend health-care coverage while curbing health-care costs, we face a decision that is more important than whether we have a public-insurance option, more important than whether we will have a singlepayer system in the long run or a mixture of public and private insurance, as we do now. The decision is whether we are going to reward the leaders who are trying to build a new generation of [accountable care organizations (ACOs)].” ACOs can include multispecialty medical groups, physician organization such as IPAs, regional information networks, PHOs, or any health system that strives to integrate and coordinate the work of a community of physicians and health care professionals to provide comprehensive care for patients. In an ACO, health care professionals work in teams and are supported by the organization’s work flow processes, communications procedures, and payment systems. This program will demonstrate how health care professionals have contributed to the development of successful physician-driven ACOs. Physician attendees will learn how they can be involved in leading change in their own communities and advance or advocate for the ACO model.
Learning Objectives:
1. Summarize the ABC’s of ACOs.
2. Illustrate how different physician organization models have achieved varying degrees of accountability.
3. Analyze how effective physician leadership can influence organizational change that leads to more accountable care.
Click her to view Dr. Joseph Corkery's PowerPoint
Employment Contracting: What to ask for? How to ask for it?
Friday, Nov. 6, 3:15-4:45 p.m., George R. Brown Convention Center - Room 310 A-E
Employment Contracting: What to ask for? How to ask for it?
1.5 AMA PRA Category 1 CreditsTM
Faculty: Etta Pisano, MD and Monica Wehby, MD
As our economic health care system continues to change and reorganize, more new and established physicians are becoming employed physicians. As a result there has been an increase in the amount of physicians that are covered by employment contracts. According to Dr. Michael Maves, American Medical Association CEO, “Physician employment is an integral part of the practice of medicine. Many physicians today are employed by small group practices, multispecialty group practices, medical faculty practice plans, hospitals or other institutions”. The AMA Office of the General Counsel has developed an Annotated Model Physician Employment Agreement as a resource for physicians who are negotiated an employment contract. The manual is a resource for both employed physicians and physician groups that employ physicians. To further educate physicians on employment contracts this educational program will provide an overview on what to ask for and how to ask for it when negotiating a contract. It will also highlight the provisions of an agreement and some negotiating techniques when entering into a contract.
Learning Objectives:
1. Identify what to ask for when entering into an employment contract.
2. Discuss strategies for what to ask for when negotiating an employment agreement.
3. Explain the provisions within an employment contract.
4. Describe some negotiating techniques to utilize when entering into an employment agreement.
Click here to view Dr. Etta Pisano's PowerPoint
Successful Contracting with Payors
Saturday, Nov. 7, 8:00-9:30 a.m., George R. Brown Convention Center - Room 310 A-E
Successful Contracting with Payors
1.5 AMA PRA Category 1 CreditsTM
Faculty: Norm Davidson
Physicians are the cornerstone to healthcare delivery. Effective contracting strategies are the key to providing stable revenue streams for physician practices to ensure economic viability. Adequate reimbursement is critical to have sufficient capital for information systems, medical technology and to ensure an adequate number of physicians to treat patients. Physicians typically do not have training in contracting and may be at a disadvantage when negotiating with the payor community. This session will educate physicians about effective negotiating strategies with the payor community to obtain adequate reimbursement for medical services.
Learning objectives:
1. Understand the basics of money distribution in our healthcare system.
2. Learn how to read a contract.
3. Develop an appreciation for contracting strategies.
4. Understand what contract terms are usually negotiable and which ones are not.
5. Learn which contract terms can be dangerous or harmful to your practice.
6. Develop a strategy to assess every contract you sign.
7. Appreciate the legal impact of signing a contract.
Health system reform update: A bipartisan discussion
Saturday, Nov. 7, 11:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m , George R. Brown Convention Center - Room 332
Health system reform update: A bipartisan discussion
2 AMA PRA Category 1 CreditsTM
Faculty: Congressman Michael Burgess, MD (R-TX); a Democratic Congressperson TBD; J. James Rohack, MD, and Richard Deem
Sponsored by all AMA Sections and Special Groups
Join Congressman Michael Burgess, MD (R-TX), and a Democratic Congressperson TBD, for a candid discussion about the status of health system reform, where it is heading and what it means for physicians and patients. Richard Deem, SVP, AMA Advocacy, will open the program and AMA President, J. James Rohack, MD, will discuss the AMA’s involvement in health system reform. With the recent changes in leadership in Washington and the challenging times facing the nation, it is imperative that physicians stay abreast of health care policy strategies and learn how to be a voice for their patients.
Learning Objectives:
1. Describe the similarities and differences between the Republican and Democratic approaches to health system reform,
2. Identify the AMA’s advocacy strategy in comparison to the Republican and Democratic proposals, and
3. Discuss strategies on how physicians can use their voice as patient advocates in the debate on health system reform.
