Week of March 21st, 2016

Recognition

I had the pleasure of witnessing Patient Centered Rounding on Unit 2A; the apparent benefits were outstanding. Provider, Nursing and Pharmacy working as one to provide outstanding care. How did we not do this before? Seamless communication, less time wasted tracking down resources, real time intervention for better outcomes, family input.. I could go on. What an opportunity to change our Culture inside out! Could there be a day in which Providers and Nursing don’t touch a keyboard? The spin-offs appear endless.. The “old” way of rounding seems so distant. I’m sure for some this seems burdensome or time consuming. I would simply ask that if your family member was in the bed, how can we afford not to this. It’s Patient 1st at its core. Dr. Coats

Meaningful Use:

2015 Attestations are complete.Congratulations are in order, as 140 of 145 eligible providers had at least one 90-day compliant period. Therefore, were able to successfully attest! This success is because of all of the hard work that you and your staff do in order to meet these CMS defined measures. Looking on to 2016, there are changes that we need to be aware of. First, compliant periods are now based on the entire year’s performance rather than a 90-day period. This change makes it critical to begin and maintain your target throughout the year. The e-prescribing measure offers the most risk in 2016. It isn’t enough to just send the Rx electronically, but a formulary check must also be complete before sending.This process allows us to know if the Rx is covered under the patient’s insurance, thus preventing them from getting to the pharmacy only to find out the medication isn’t covered/affordable. If you are not familiar with this process, your clinic manager will be able to assist you.

Population Health

The Population Health team is working diligently on a Patient 1st initiative related to transitional care management (TCM) calls for discharged patients. A pilot program has been initiated where a dedicated navigator is assigned to make the transitional care management call after patient discharge. Barriers related to access, education, medication reconciliation and social determinants are being discovered, tracked and elevated to AMG leadership, Inpatient Care Management and Nursing. As a result, barriers to patient care are being resolved within 48 hours after discharge. The TCM pilot has resulted in 12 referrals to Adena Home Care, as well as referrals for patient transportation, medication programs, and other community resources. This pilot begins to underscore the importance of timely post-discharge contact with the patient, coupled with a timely face-to-face follow up and evaluation by the provider, in order to enable our patients to remain in their homes and prevent readmissions.

Adena One Update:

The Ambulatory teams are making progress. The teams continue working on building content in the system, but are also focusing on changes in workflows and mapping out the new processes. Within the next two weeks, the clinical team will be conducting a “show and tell” by testing critical steps such as inbound and outbound faxing and importing of the clinical continuity of care document. Their teams will be collaborating with Population Health to ensure the documentation requirements for reporting are available. Meditech will be on site for the second round of application training on April 19.

Patient Satisfaction and Patient First

Managing patient satisfaction is an important part of our practice, and as with Medicine, is as much art as science. Attaining satisfaction begins with the very first encounter with the patient and continues with every encounter for the rest of the relationship. The length of the relationship is dependent on the patient’s satisfaction with your service. Managing patient satisfaction is one part of attaining a Patient 1st culture. Our focus is patient-centered care, and this principle applies to every area where we care for patients. Always ask yourself, “Is this how I would want to be treated?” and let your answer determine your actions. One other question to always ask each patient is, “What else can we do for you today?” This simple question lets the patient know you are there for them and that you care. Try incorporating this question when you close every encounter with patients, you’ll be amazed at the response.

Inpatient Clinical Documentation Integrity (CDI)Tip for Encephalopathy

For precise documentation and correct coding, the diagnostic term encephalopathy is preferred for describing mental status alteration due to toxic or metabolic causes. Encephalopathy is assigned as the principle diagnosis if it is the primary reason for inpatient admission. For example, patients with a UTI are often admitted mainly for encephalopathy (mental status alteration), not for the UTI itself. Uncomplicated UTI’s can usually be treated as an outpatient or in observation; acute encephalopathy is a serious medical condition requiring inpatient care (2016 CDI Pocket Guide, Ninth Edition).

Conflict of Interest

It is time to complete the electronic 2016 Conflict of Interest Form; this action is required as an element of Adena’s Compliance Program. All employees will receive a link to the form from Paula Benner. This year, all employees will receive the link on the same day rather than staggered as we have done in the past. The due date is May 01, 2016. Please watch for the email, currently scheduled to be delivered on March 29; and we encourage you to complete the link. Thank you.

COO Vacation:

Eric Cecava will be on vacation until Monday, April 11. During this time, Dr. Anthony Freeman will be covering any operational issues. Dr. Freeman can be reached at or by calling the administrative line at 740-779-7584 (27584).

National Doctor’s Day

Wednesday, March 30th, is National Doctors’ Day. Patients are one of the best sources of feedback and we have received numerous comments about Adena providers. We would like to share a sample with you and congratulate each of you on the great care you are providing. Our goal is to continue to share these comments. We recognize that Nurse Practitioners and many others comprise the wonderful team that care for patients. Plans are in place to share patient comments regarding these great individuals during other recognized weeks and national days. Attached is just a small sample of the many comments we have received. We will include more responses over the next several weeks.

Reminder - Provider Portal

As a way to further communication between providers, we are happy to announce that a new webpage is available for Adena providers on Adena.org. The page is intended to help our providers stay up-to-date with the latest news and events going on at Adena. The portal will also be a source for important links and documents. You can access the Provider Portal page at This portal will soon hold provider events, news, and these CMO weekly updates under the resource section.

Thought for Life

During this Easter season, regardless of religious or political affiliation, please remember that guilt, regret, resentment, sadness and all forms of non-forgiveness are caused by too much past and not enough presence.

Dr. Coats

Dr. Freeman

Dr. Kittaka