Archive for August, 2009
Blog report: AMA’s president launches new blog
“On the Road with Dr. Rohack” is the new blog AMA’s president J. James Rohack, MD started earlier this week.
Get the inside scoop on this blog by reading the Health Leaders Media article, “AMA President Dives into Blogosphere.”
You can find Rohack’s latest posts at http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/health-system-reform/blog.shtml.
What new Clinical Privilege White Papers do you need?
We’re updating several of our Clinical Privilege White Papers and want to hear from you which ones should top our list. Please take our poll.
And don’t forget to let us know what other new Clinical Privilege White Papers you would like by using the comment boxes below.
Alert patients to HIPAA violations, says new regulation
All hospital workers—including MSPs and medical staff professionals—need to adhere to Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) guidelines. The government recently updated these guidelines to require healthcare providers to notify patients if their health information was breached.
Medical staffs should update their polices as needed to reflect these changes.
According to a press release: “The regulations, developed by the HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR), require health care providers and other HIPAA covered entities to promptly notify affected individuals of a breach, as well as the HHS Secretary and the media in cases where a breach affects more than 500 individuals. Breaches affecting fewer than 500 individuals will be reported to the HHS Secretary on an annual basis. The regulations also require business associates of covered entities to notify the covered entity of breaches at or by the business associate.”
Can you recruit and credential J-1 visa waiver practitioners?
If your medical staff has a short to long term opening for a provider, one way to fill it is with a J-1 visa waiver practitioner. But credentialing specialists beware – before you start processing all that paperwork, it’s best to know if your organization is qualified to work with such a candidate.
J-1 visa waiver practitioners are typically foreign citizens who have graduated from an American residency program and are seeking work in this country. Without the waiver, these graduates must return to their home country for two years before returning here to find work and possibly to begin the citizenship process.
Rural and CAH sessions at CRC Symposium
To improve next year’s Credentialing Resource Center Symposium we need to hear from you!
Can you please take a moment out of your day to answer these four quick questions we have about your interest in rural and critical access hospitals (CAH)?
Click this link to answer the questions: www.zoomerang.com/Survey/?p=WEB229JF5HHZC7
NAMSS letter supports work of MS.1.20 task force
The National Association Medical Staff Services issued a letter on August 7 declaring its support for the working draft standard MS.01.01.01 (under The Joint Commission’s previous numbering system it was known as standard MS.1.20). Other healthcare associations signed the letter. They included:
• American College of Physicians
• American Medical Association
• American College of Surgeons
• Federation of American Hospitals
• American Dental Association
• American Hospital Association
Originally, standard MS.1.20 drew fire from critics because it would complicate the workings of the bylaws, which is a complex document in hospitals and not easily changed. In late 2007, The Joint Commission established a task force to reevaluate the standard. The task force will next meet with The Joint Commission by October 15, 2009. The task force last met with the accrediting body at its August 1-2 meeting.
The link between hospitalists and quality
A recently study shows that hospitalists improve the quality of care delivered in hospitals, but do they really improve the care? That’s the question being asked on The Wall Street Journal Health Blog. (Be sure to read the comments below the original post for perspectives from the field, too.)
The Archives of Internal Medicine published study finds that these practitioners “may contribute to improved quality of care for patients with common inpatient diagnoses.” But critics are quick to point out that hospitalists typically work at large, academic medical centers and there may be other reasons for the high quality delivery of care at those organizations.
Does your hospital employ hospitalists? If so, how well do they interact with the rest of the medical staff? Do you think they contribute more to quality care than medical staff members?
Check out our Hospitalist Leadership blog for more hospitalist news. http://blogs.hcpro.com/hospitalist
Malpractice trial focuses on doctor with temporary privileges
The malpractice trial began yesterday for John Christian Gunn, MD whose patient Herberta “Bertie” Lang died after carotid artery surgery. Prosecutors gave the jury multiple reasons why Gunn should not have been granted temporary privileges to perform the surgery, including his questionable clinical judgments and multiple failed certification exams, according to an August 5 article in The Ledger Independent.
Lang’s family is accusing the hospital where Gunn worked and its parent company of corporate negligence. Meadowview Regional Medical Center in Maysville, KY granted Gunn temporary privileges from September 2005 to January 2006.
Nurses face felony charges after reporting doctor to the Texas Medical Board
Anne Mitchell, RN and Vicki Galle, RN, two nurses from West Texas, tried reporting a physician’s problem behavior through designated hospital channels. When their complaints fell on deaf ears, they took the next step and anonymously reported the physician to the Texas Medical Board.
If you’re a follower of Rita Schwab’s Supporting Safer Healthcare blog you already know what happened next – the medical board notified the physician of its investigation. In turn, the physician contacted the local sheriff to file a harassment report. The sheriff’s investigation led to third degree felony charges for the nurses.
The Texas Medical Board and the Texas Nurses Association both support the nurses’ actions, but that hasn’t stopped the sheriff’s office’s investigation.
Newspaper columnists have also come out in support of the nurses, saying the state’s whistleblower laws should offer more protection.
What do you think of the case? Do you think a similar situation could occur within your medical staff?