Author Archive for Elizabeth Jones
Elizabeth (Liz) Jones is an associate editor at HCPro. She writes and contributes to several monthly newsletters including Medical Staff Briefing, Hospitalist Leadership Advisor, and Credentialing and Peer Review Legal Insider. Liz graduated from Salem (MA) State College in 2003 with a B.A. in professional writing. Before joining HCPro, Liz wrote for a national monthly business publication where she gained experience in executive-level business and healthcare issues.
Going the extra mile
Sometimes going the extra mile may not save the medical staff services department time, effort, or money, but it can make a huge difference in physician and employee satisfaction.
Shirley Prihoda, CPCS, medical staff coordinator at Brazosport Regional Health System in Lake Jackson, TX, realized that the hospital operators never meet the physicians that they contact. To personalize the system, she inserted a headshot into each physician’s profile. That way, the hospital operators see each physician’s face whenever they open the file to retrieve his or her phone number.
“[The operators] were originally talking to these faceless people, but they love being able to look at who they are talking to,” Prihoda explains. “That was something that didn’t take me long to do, but I got lots of calls from the operators saying how much they liked it.”
Find more great tips like this in the upcoming December issue of Medical Staff Briefing.
MSPs share their thoughts during National Medical Staff Services Awareness Week
During National Medical Staff Services Awareness Week, we are encouraging MSPs to share their thoughts with us. I did an interview with Carole LaPine, MSA, CPMSM, CPCS, manager for physician services at Trinity Health in Novi, MI. As a veteran MSP, Carole had a lot to share:
LJ: If there was one thing you could say to the world during National Medical Staff Services Awareness Week, what would it be?
CL: One of the first things I would say is, “Physician leaders, medical executives, and healthcare administrators, this is the time to recognize a vital member of the health care delivery team: your medical staff services professional.”
LJ: What does being an MSP mean to you?
Celebrate National Medical Staff Services Awareness Week!
To celebrate National Medical Staff Services Awareness Week, we asked medical staff leaders to share their thoughts on the MSPs that they work with daily.
Stewart Hamilton, MD, CMO of Yuma Regional Medical Center in Yuma, AZ says, “They are some of the most dedicated and hardworking medical professionals that I have ever known. They are the unsung and unrecognized heroes in healthcare and, in particular, patient safety.”
Let’s get Medical Staff Services Awareness Week off to a running start!
As I’m sure many of you are aware, Medical Staff Services Awareness Week is November 1-7. To get the celebrations off to a bang, I thought I’d ask some MSPs what this upcoming week means to them and how being an MSP has shaped their lives. Here’s what Kathleen Tafel, medical staff services consultant and former manager, medical staff services at Ellis Hospital in Schenectady, NY had to say:
I came to the world of credentialing through the good fortune of an interview with two individuals: the director of medical affairs and the chief medical officer. They assessed a myriad of talents, both hard and soft (computer skills, medical terminology, meeting organization, supervisory and leadership, committee participation and leadership) and matched them to the skill-set they were looking for to fulfill the manager position for Medical Staff Services.
Some physicians have trouble alerting others of potential mistakes
Physicians may not have an easy time speaking up when they see a medical mistake waiting to happen, says Mary J. Voutt-Goos RN, BSN, CCRN, director patient safety initiatives in the Office of Clinical Quality and Safety at the Henry Ford Health System in Detroit.
I interviewed Mary for the November Medical Staff Briefing article “Joint Commission Alert puts leaders behind the wheel of patient safety: Steps for navigating the road ahead” and decided to ask our physician and MSP readers why they think speaking up is so difficult. Check out this article excerpt and let me know what you think:
Through surveys, Voutt-Goos learned that senior physicians also find it difficult to point out potential errors to their peers, although the exact reason isn’t clear. Voutt-Goos plans to conduct further focus groups to pinpoint why.
Regardless of why senior staff members have difficulty speaking up, the message is clear. “If you have difficulty speaking up to your colleagues in those situations, think about how much harder it must be for people lower in the hierarchy, like residents, nurses, technicians, and patients,” Voutt-Goos says.
Sample medical staff leadership retreat agenda
Looking to implement medical staff leadership retreats at your facility but not sure where to start? Check out “Tips for a successful medical staff leadership retreat: Involve leaders in training the next generation” in the November issue of Medical Staff Briefing. Along with some great tips, such as limiting retreats to medical executive committee members, Swedish Medical Center in Englewood, CO, contributed a sample agenda. I hope this helps get your facility retreat-ready!
Tip of the week: Use professional reference questionnaires to make sound credentialing decisions—Free form!
It is more important than ever to create an effective method of capturing performance data that allows the credentials committee and others to make evidence-based credentialing and privileging decisions. However, obtaining more than a neutral letter from an applicant’s previous or current affiliations can be difficult.
A carefully designed, criteria-based reference questionnaire can be one of the most valuable tools in your credentialing and privileging tool box. One form can capture the information credentialing professionals need from an initial applicant’s past department chairs, postgraduate training directors, and professional references.
When querying reference sources, always include a copy of the privileges the (re)applicant requested at your facility with the reference questionnaire. Ask the reference source to comment on the applicant’s competence to perform all of the privileges requested.
This week’s tip was adapted from Assessing the Competency of Low-Volume Practitioners: Tools and Strategies for OPPE and FPPE Compliance, by Mark A. Smith, MD, MBA, CMSL and Sally Pelletier, CPMSM, CPCS. For more great tips and tools to help you with your low-volume provider conundrum, join HCPro and The Greeley Company for “Low-Volume Providers Workshop: Solutions to Assess Competency and Comply with FPPE and OPPE” on Oct. 19! Purchase both the book and Web cast and get a discount!
Source: Medical Staff Leader Connection
Contest entry: Streamline credentials committee meetings
Judy Smedra, CPMSM, CPCS, director of medical staff affairs at the University of Kansas Hospital, has instituted a process to streamline activities at credentials committee meetings. All credentials committee members are requested to come to the medical staff office prior to the meeting to review all new applications and reappointments. At the meeting, those individuals take ownership of the files they reviewed by giving a report on the contents and leading the discussion about that applicant.
“This process has made members more actively involved in each meeting and more aware of credentialing requirements and placement of documents in the files. During Joint Commission surveys, this knowledge has been apparent to the surveyors, which is always a plus!” Smedra writes.
Thanks for the great tip Judi! Sometimes the simplest changes make the biggest difference!
Contest entry: Who doesn’t want post-meeting follow up to be a breeze?
Kim Everett, medical staff coordinator at Good Samaritan Hospital in Vincennes, IN, submitted a great form to the Greeley Medical Staff Institute Symposium contest that streamlines post-meeting wrap-ups.
Everett writes that the medical staff departments, services, and committees at Good Samaritan meet at least 200 times per year, and the medical staff services department (MSSD) is responsible for meeting preparations, minutes, and follow up. Agenda items are gathered from hospital departments for approval, but the number can get overwhelming.
To ensure all items are discussed or approved by the various committees, the MSSD created an agenda tracking form, which is made available to department secretaries who are responsible for providing the MSSD with discussion and approval items. The MSSD reviews the document and places it on the appropriate agendas for the right month.
“Implementation of the form has enabled us to ensure appropriate committee approval. In addition, the tracking forms are kept electronically, and when questioned as to the committees which discussed/approved a particular agenda item, the electronic tracking form quickly points us to which minutes should be reviewed for further information,” Everett writes.
Great stuff Kim! Never underestimate the value of a good form!
To submit your tip, tool, or form, please e-mail Karen Cheung at kcheung@hcpro.com. To learn more about The Greeley Medical Staff Institute Symposium contest, click here.
Contest entry: OPPE forms for psychiatry
Thanks to Sharon Chaput, RN, CSHA, director of regulatory and quality management at Brattleboro Retreat in Brattleboro, VT, for sending in this OPPE indicator form and OPPE master grid. We here at HCPro have heard for several years now how tricky FPPE and OPPE can be, so we’re happy to share these forms, which can be adapted to meet the needs of any specialty.
“The Joint Commission surveyor told us this past June that this form is the best he has seen in the country,” Chaput writes.
Thanks for sharing, Sharon!
The Greeley Medical Staff Institute Symposium is just weeks away. Be sure to enter our contest to win two free seats before it’s too late!!