Meetings

Thursday, November 6, 12:30-2:00 pm, Grand Ballroom 8A

Organized Medical Staff Peer Review Done Right

Faculty: S. Jay Jayasankar, MD, presentation, principles, article; Elizabeth Snelson, Esq., presentation; Robert A. Wise, MD, The Joint Commission, presentation 

Peer review is an essential tool in maintaining patient safety and quality of care: through learning and evaluating a physician’s past performance. In this program Dr. Jayasankar will discuss the Massachusetts Principles of Peer Review, of which many were adopted by the American Medical Association (AMA). This information will provide physicians with a guide to developing standards for peer review programs in their hospitals. Dr. Wise will introduce and discuss the Ongoing Professional Practice Evaluation (OPPE) and Focused Professional Practice Evaluation (FPPE), The Joint Commission’s standards on peer review. Finally Ms. Snelson will present information to aid physicians in understanding peer review pitfalls and to educate them on the legal problems surrounding peer review within hospital medical staffs.

Learning Objectives:

1. Apply the work of the Massachusetts Medical Society to develop appropriate parameters for medical peer review.
2. Define The Joint Commission’s standards on peer review by organized medical staffs in hospitals.
3. Discuss the pitfalls and legal problems surrounding peer review and educate practitioners on effective peer review processes

Thursday, November 6, 2:15-3:45 pm, Grand Ballroom 8A

Physicians as Targets and How to Avoid Being One

Faculty: Michael J. Schoppmann, Esq, Kern Augustine Conroy & Schoppmann P.C., presentation 

Physicians have become become accustomed to facing threats such as Medical Malpractice. However, there are an increasing number of issues arising that are detrimental to physicians and their practices. This program is designed to provide physicians with a new perspective on the these growing threats, and how to effectively, and immediately, risk manage them. Specifically, topics rang from the new tactics of Licensing Boards, the “False Labeling” of physicians, “Sham Peer Reviews” and through to the exponential increase in Work Place Claims (Sexual Harassment, Hostile Work Environment, etc.). This program is designed to fundamentally change, new difficulties to their practice of medicine and how to dramatically reduce the career threatening risks attendant to each of them.

Learning Objectives:

1. Identify practical hands-on changes to your methods of practice to effectively address threats and manage risks toward your career.
2. Develop a decrease in the risk of financial audits by public and/or private payers (Health Plans, Medicare, Medicaid, etc), investigations by state licensing authorities, claims by employees, and credentialing actions by your hospital medical staffs.

Friday, November 7, 1:30-3:00 pm, Crystal M and J2

Organized Medical Staffs & Disruptive Behavior

Faculty: Michael J. Schoppmann, Esq, Kern Augustine Conroy & Schoppmann P.C., presentation; Elizabeth Snelson, Esq., presentation; Robert A. Wise, MD, The Joint Commission, presentation 

Disruptive Behavior amongst physicians and other health care professionals in hospitals impacts patient safety and the quality of care that is provided and has increasingly become an issue in the present healthcare system. In response, The Joint Commission is creating a new standard that will take effect in January 2009. This new standard, will require hospital administrators to adopt codes of defining disruptive behavior against the codes of conduct and developing procedures to invoke discipline. In this program Dr. Wise will discuss the new Joint Commission standard on Disruptive Behavior. Mr. Schoppman will describe the consequences to physicians when faced with disruptive behavior allegations. Finally Ms. Snelson will discuss methods for addressing disruptive behavior for Organized Medical Staffs to incorporate in their written processes.

Learning Objectives:

1. Define The Joint Commission’s leadership standards regarding disruptive behavior.
2. Demonstrate what can happen to physicians facing disruptive behavior charges.
3. Illustrate and educate physicians on issues surrounding disruptive behavior and medical staff processes to effectively address these concerns.

Friday, November 7, 3:15-4:45 pm, Crystal M and J2

Health System Reform

Faculty: Jeremy A. Lazarus, MD, Speaker, House of Delegates, AMA, presentation & Robert Scher, MD, presentation 

In an election year there is a great deal of discussion regarding the inefficiencies in the American healthcare system. The American Medical Association (AMA) has made covering the uninsured a top and ongoing priority. The “Voice for the Uninsured” campaign brings public attention to the high number of those without healthcare in the US, and offers solutions to alleviate this crisis. In this program an AMA board member will present AMA’s proposal to cover the uninsured and expand healthcare choice. Further, there will be an explanation on the reforms proposed by the US President elect, and how they compare to AMA initiatives.

In New York state there are approximately 2.8 million non elderly uninsured individuals. These individuals have characteristics that are similar to those who are uninsured across the US, they are between 18 and 35, suffer from chronic health conditions, or usually work for a small business that does not offer adequate health insurance. The New York State Medical Society (MSSNY) is exploring a system that is based on a current program, which provides more choice to the consumer. This new system may have the potential to solve the cost of insuring those who do not have healthcare coverage, as well as, give the physician and the hospital the ability to control many of the external forces against them. Dr. Scher will present the initiatives on the MSSNY Task Force on Healthcare Delivery System Reform.

Learning Objectives:

1. Describe the American Medical Association's (AMA's) proposal to cover the uninsured and expand choice.
2. Identify the AMA's initiatives against the newly elected Presidential Candidate's health care reform proposal.
3. Discuss the work of the Medical Society of the State of New York’s Healthcare Delivery System Reform.

Saturday, November 8, 8:00-9:30 am, Crystal M and J2

Health Insurance, Medical Inflation, and the Patient-Physician Relationship

Faculty: Richard B. Warner, MD, presentation 

With politicians and policymakers emphasizing the importance of providing access to affordable and quality healthcare to individuals, it is timely to study how such efforts affect the structure of health insurance. The ways in which individuals obtain health insurance have an impact on medical inflation, and in turn the efforts to contain that inflation affect the patient-physician relationship.  This presentation will examine the influence of insurance on medical pricing, decision-making, judgment of quality, and long-term health outcomes.  It will include a discussion describing the tensions between the personalized medicine of the Hippocratic tradition and the systemization of medicine that is being driven by third party payers. Also discussed will be methods of containing medical inflation, while still preserving the patient-physician relationship. 

Learning Objectives:

1. Describe how the structure of health insurance affects medical inflation.
2. Explain how the structure of health insurance affects the patient-physician relationship and control over medical decision-making.
3. Identify and advocate for the most promising policies for containing medical inflation and preserving the role of the patient-physician relationship.

Saturday, November 8, 1:00-2:30 pm, Crystal N-P

Medical Home Model: Recognizing and Strengthening the Value of Primary Care

Faculty: Paul Grundy, MD, MPH and Donald Klitgaard, MD

Under the medical home model, a "principal care physician" leads a team of health care providers that share collective responsibility for ongoing patient care. Some might ask, "What’s new about that?" What makes the medical home model different is that it rewards collaboration among physicians, hospitals, and other community stakeholders in providing care, for an innovative cost-effective approach to meet the patient’s health care needs overall. The medical home model is attracting the attention of large employers, physician groups, insurers, states and the federal government - all of whom are joining together to explore a new way of delivering health care. This program features, Paul Grundy, MD, MPH, Director, Healthcare Transformation, IBM Corporation, a key leader among the large employer sector interested in effecting change in health care delivery. Also featured is Don Klitgaard, MD, Medical Director, Myrtue Medical Center Clinics, a physician leader from Iowa involved in developing the medical home model within his own small group practice.

Learning Objectives

• Identify fundamental principles of the medical home model
• Explain the large employer perspective
• Discuss the model from a practicing physician perspective
• Recognize how the model impacts non-primary care physicians

Advertisement