Denver Medical Study Group

Greetings,

This is a “can’t miss”  opportunity this Thursday to hear Dr. Stacey Rizza, the Executive Medical Director for International Academic Affairs at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN. speak to our DMSG Community.

In addition to her role as Executive Medical Director for International Affairs, Dr. Rizza is the Associate Dean of the Mayo Clinic School of Health Sciences, the Associate Director for Diversity and Inclusion, Mayo Clinic Transplant Center and President of the Mayo Clinic Staff. She has also served on committees and held roles within the Infectious Disease Society of America, the World Health Organization (WHO), and the Center for Disease Control (CDC).

This will be a more interactive webinar with Dr. Rizza as she shares with us “What We Know Now” about the COVID virus. Bring your questions and join us Thursday.

You can register for the meeting on the link below:

https://denvermedicalstudygroup.com/september-10th-stacey-rizza-md-infectious-disease-specialist-living-in-a-covid-world-what-we-know-now/

I look forward to this educational opportunity for you as you join our DMSG Community to hear what Dr. Rizza has to share.

Warmest Personal Regards,

Chris

THANKS TO OUR PLATINUM SPONSORS BELOW FOR THEIR SUPPORT OF THE DMSG!! THEY HAVE “STEPPED UP TO THE PLATE” TO SEE THAT THE DMSG CONTINUES TO PROVIDE EXCELLENT SPEAKERS AND TOPICS TO OUR COMMUNITY!! THANK YOU VERY MUCH!

Greetings,

On Sept. 10^th at 12:30 p.m. MDT, the DMSG will have Stacey Rizza, MD, Executive Medical Director for International Academic Affairs and Infectious Disease Physician at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota as our guest speaker. She has served on committees and held roles within the Infectious Disease Society of America, the World Health Organization (WHO), and the Center for Disease Control (CDC).

In late April, Mayo Clinic’s Dr. Rizza, consulted with Hilton properties as it collaborated with Reckitt Benckiser Group, maker of Lysol and Dettol to develop processes and team member training to help Hilton guests enjoy an even cleaner and safer stay from check-in to checkout.

In late June, Delta Airlines announced it is consulting with Mayo Clinic on COVID-19 testing for employees and safety measures. Mayo will assist in administering the tests and analyzing the findings. Based on the results, Mayo will make recommendations to Delta on how to  update its existing policies and safety measures, as reported in Becker’s Hospital Review, August 2020 issue.

Join us as Dr. Stacey shares an understanding of the COVID virus itself, staying safe, impact of a vaccine and immunity. These are all areas of interest and concern as we move into this school year for our children and their teachers as well as parents. Also with new hot spots of COVID cases showing up in recent weeks, it will be helpful to understand what we know now.

Click on the link below to join us;

https://denvermedicalstudygroup.com/september-10th-stacey-rizza-md-infectious-disease-specialist-living-in-a-covid-world-what-we-know-now/

I look forward to this educational opportunity as I’m sure you will!

One day at a time,

Chris

Chris Hadley
Founder & President
Denver Medical Study Group, Inc.
303-249-5572
denvermedicalstudygroup@gmail.com

 

THANKS TO OUR PLATINUM SPONSORS BELOW FOR THEIR SUPPORT OF THE DMSG!! THEY HAVE “STEPPED UP TO THE PLATE” TO SEE THAT THE DMSG CONTINUES TO PROVIDE EXCELLENT SPEAKERS AND TOPICS TO OUR COMMUNITY!! THANK YOU VERY MUCH!

COVID-19: Are We Kidding Ourselves When We choose to wear or not wear Face Masks???

Greetings,

There continues to be more things to talk about in healthcare now, primarily because the covid pandemic has magnified all the negative issues in healthcare but also some of the positive issues. One of the potential positive issues relates to something that we all have an opinion about—face masks!! Some say it’s political and others say “no, it’s all healthcare related”. Some won’t wear them and others wear them over their mouths but not their noses. There are all kinds of face masks, surgical, non-surgical, large, small, pattern masks, bandannas, shields, you can think of others as well.what are we overlooking here when we talk about face masks?

But are we kidding ourselves when we talk about wearing/not wearing face masks?

I think Dr. Gawande, surgeon at Boston Mass General Brigham Health System and New Yorker reporter, has helped me get answers to questions I have not only about face masks but other elements of protection as well. See below:

1. Are face masks by themselves effective to prevent me from spreading or getting the covid virus?
2. Is there one kind of material better than another for a face mask? How should the face masks fit?
3. If not by themselves, what else should I do when I go out of my house, office or car?
4. What experiences have hospitals had protecting their healthcare providers and other employees from getting the covid virus?

In an article by Dr. Atul Gawande, surgeon at Mass General Brigham and reporter for The New Yorker, May article on reopening, he talks about the “combination therapy” —-hygiene measures, screening, distancing, and masks. Skip one and the treatment won’t work. But if taken together, and done seriously, they shut down the virus!

If you click on the link above to Dr. Gawande’s article, you’ll find out a lot of things that will be helpful to understand these elements properly—what their strengths and limitations are—if they are going to work for you.

Don’t go on what others say about the various elements of combination therapy, read the article by one of the experts, Dr. Gawande, and you’ll begin to function better without fear when you are out in the public.

May you be safe in your daily activities and in your strategy to protect not only yourself but other family members and friends as well.

One day at a time

 

 

 

Chris Hadley
President & Founder
Denver Medical Study Group

The Coronavirus Pandemic Has Highlighted Hospitals Weaknesses

Recently we shared one of DMSG Advisory Board Members, Rachel Rogers, MS, BSN-RN, Assistant Academic Director, Healthcare Management Program, University of Denver, University College’s white paper on our website about the dynamics of determining which hospital to go to for quality care, reasonable cost and accessibility to providers.

Rachel put this white paper together prior to the outbreak of the Coronoavirus. We were interested in finding a way to determine which hospital to go to “if I had a choice”. She did a great job of opening that door to analyzing this difficult process.

NOW, with the outbreak of the Coronavirus, the issues of hospital weaknesses have become more pronounced than before. Prior to COVID-19, hospital executives were aware of some concerns about hospitals in general, but now the issues have become more “front page news” so to speak.

So how do we as consumers/patients and healthcare providers/hospital executives expand our understanding of where we as patients want to go or how do we as hospital executives, solve these inadequacies?

One of my favorite hospital executives/leaders, Patty Gabow, MD, retired CEO of Denver Health and Board Member of the Lown Institute, shared with me recently the following story from the Lown Institute which may help us all, both patients and hospital executives.

Here’s the background Patty shared with me:

“The Lown Institute has spent the last two years developing a new hospital ranking method. It utilizes 42 variables in 3 domains for the Medicare population: Patient Outcomes, Value of Care, and Civic Leadership. The outcome data uses a very sophisticated method that is superior to CMS’s method and other published methods.

They have partnered with the Washington Monthly, a DC-based publication that has a highly influential readership. Both the Lown Hospitals Index and the Washington Monthly Best Hospitals in America publication which uses the Lown Index have been released.

The Index is on the Lown website (www.LownHospitalsIndex.org).  It is a very interactive website. I hope you can take a look at it . Many of the “usual suspects” did not do too well.”

My reaction was “this ought to be very interesting” and I wasn’t disappointed. The Lown Institute Hospitals Index does a great job of looking at the 42 variables Patty mentioned under each domain. Then they place a “grade” on the variables and the three domains. I was intrigued with the amount of detail that was included about hospitals in any state, but our primary interest is right here in Colorado.

The three main domains and a few of the variables  are listed below:

1. Civic Leadership
   +Pay Equity
   +Community Benefit
   +Inclusivity (income, race, education)
2. Value of Care
   +Avoiding Overuse
3. Patient Outcome
   +Clinical Outcomes
   +Patient Safety
   +Patient Satisfaction

There is so much more information about the domains and variables when you open the link http://www.lownhospitalsindex.org/.  You will find it hard to “put it down” so to speak.

Please share the Lown Institute Hospitals Index with others who may not see it here.

One day at a time,

Chris Hadley
Founder and President
Denver Medical Study Group, Inc.
Denvermedicalstudygroup@gmail.com
303-249-5572

 

June 23rd DMSG Meeting Survey Responses of Healthcare Providers

As part of the Planning Tool Survey that we did at our June 23rd DMSG meeting, pur guest speaker, Dana Jacoby, suggested that we add the following five questions to gain an understanding of what our healthcare providers were dealing with during this COVID-19 pandemic. I think you’ll enjoy seeing their responses below.

Here they are:

+Has COVID-19 caused you to reduce your services to the community?
60% said No
40% said Yes

+What percentage of furloughed employees do you plan to rehire?
100%  rehired = 36%
95% rehired = 7%
90% rehired = 7%
None furloughed= 43%
Other =  7%
(Total = 100%)

+Has the COVID_19 created leadership and/or culture challenges?
None = 12%
Short-Term = 52%
Long-Term and Short-Term = 18%
Long-Term = 18%
(Total -= 100%)

+Do you anticipate reducing services over the next 12-18 months?
No = 53%
Maybe = 29%
Yes = 18%
(Total = 100%)

+Are you adequately prepared if there is a COVID-19 resurgence?
Yes = 42%
No = 5%
Unsure at this time = 53%
(Total = 100%)

DISCLOSURE: As far as surveys go, our effort was fairly limited but did reflect those healthcare providers who completed the survey on June 23rd. So enjoy and feel free to email me at Denvermedicalstudygroup@gmail.com with any comments or responses to these questions you might have.

Chris Hadley
Founder and President
303-249-5572

 

Greetings to you on this fine Colorado day of May 19, 2020. If you’ve been barraged with articles about face masks, comments about why they don’t work although many people are wearing them. I have opinion about face masks as I’m sure most everyone else does too.

Check out the link to the article below. It’s the most helpful one I’ve seen so far to determine how and when to use face masks in combination with hand washing, not touching your face, staying at home, and social distancing or staying 6 feet away from others.

The author is Peter Tippett, MD, PhD, Internal Medicine certified, Emergency Room MD with a PhD in Biochemistry. His background has focused on helping people understand how risk, infection and the growth of infection behaves. I hope you enjoy his article.

Here’s the link:

Saving Your Health, One Mask at a Time

Twelve Points of Dr. Tippett’s article include:

1. Bottom Line on Masks and Gloves
2. Protections Work Together
3. Getting Infected is Not “Black and White”
4. So How Does a Mask Really Work?
5. The Nuance Behind Mask Testing
6. How and When You are Likely to be Exposed
7. Is a Hospital Mask Better than Homemade?
8. Should I be Wearing Gloves, Too?
9. What About Grocery Bags?
10. Hand Washing & Sanitizers
11. What about Packages and mail delivered on the front porch?
12. But I work in a Grocery Store (or Warehouse)

Key Takeaways
+Social Distance
+Safe Zone
+Masks

NOTE: This article was provided by John Hood, Director of COPIC Fiinancial Services and Platinum Sponsor of the DMSG.

“California Voters are Thinking about the Fundamental Values Associates with Single-Payer but Almost Zero Voters have Thought About the Policy Implications.”

I have been out of the loop the past two weeks on vacation back to my “roots”. While I was gone, some news came out from the New York Times on May 25th. The article summarizes political talk in California about Single-Payer Health Care in California.

It brings back some memories of the 2016 Amendment 69 here in Colorado.  The concept is frequently titled “Medicare for All”. It is interesting reading to hear what could happen in California if it becomes reality there.

To check it out click the link below:

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/05/25/business/economy/california-single-payer.html

Chris Hadley
President and Founder
Denver Medical Study Group
denvermedicalstudygroup@gmail.com

“Leading Though Learning—-Healthcare Innovation & Reform”

 

Warranty or Money Back Guarantee?

 It’s shocking to hear about a medical clinic, hospital, or doctor’s office willing to give a money-back guarantee, but our understanding is that it is being done.  In fact there is one healthcare organization that started doing this several years ago, Geisinger Health Systems in Danville, PA. Dr. Glenn Steele, CEO Emeritus, began the concept as a “waranty” to patients for specific surgical procedures.

Other health system leaders have said “Don’t do the warranty concept.” However, “Proven Care” has proven to be the beginning of Geisinger’s most radical innovation. Followed by Proven Experience where patients can use a smartphone app to tell Geisinger about their experience. They can request a refund if they are unhappy with the care they received.

A program offering refunds to patients with no questions asked seems ripe for abuse. But that is not the case. Patients don’t really want money back. They want the System to recognize they did something wrong and make it right, according to the current CEO, Dr. David Feinberg.

The Denver Medical Study Group has invited Dr. Steele to come here and talk to the group about this on April 4, 2018 (Warranties, Value Based Care and Health Transformation Alliance).  You can register by clicking on the link below:

April 4th, Glenn D. Steele, Jr., MD, PhD., CEO Emeritus, Geisinger Health System

Thank you in advance for joining us on April 4th to hear what Dr. Steele has to share with us.

Best wishes,

Chris Hadley
Founder and President
Denver Medical Study Group
Denvermedicalstudygroup@gmail.com
303-249-5572

In preparation for our Feb. 21^st DMSG meeting with our keynote speaker, Jonathan Edelheit, CEO and Co-Founder of the Medical Tourism Association, we are looking for a Colorado hospital  or a large medical group that is involved with medical tourism. If you know of someone who is doing this either  internationally or domestically or would like to, we’d like to know.

This will be helpful in understanding how medical tourism, especially domestically, would work here in Colorado as it is around the country. May be a new source of revenue for your institution or practice.

One question that has been asked already by one hospital executive is “how do you define Medical Tourism?” Here’s the definition Jonathan responded with:

“Medical Tourism can be defined as multiple things, 1) international patients traveling inbound into the US, 2) Domestic medical tourism (aka Direct Contracting/Bundled Payments, RBP, which is the big trend with all the national employers (Walmart, Jetblue, Boeing, etc)  sending their employees to Cleveland clinic, Johns Hopkins, Mercy in Missouri etc. For some hospitals or large medical groups who aren’t familiar with it, I think they perceive it as something different than it is.  I look forward to talking to you more about it.”

Thanks in advance for your comments or suggestions!

If you are interested in attending our meeting on  Feb. 21st, you can register by clicking on the link below.

February 21st, Jonathan Edelheit, CEO & Co-Founder, Medical Tourism Association

Thanks to our DMSG sponsor for this meeting, Lowdermilk & Associates for their support of our DMSG Community and our speakers!

     Innovative Executive & Employee Benefits. Trusted.

As The Opioid Crisis Grows, What are The Latest Developments here in Colorado and the U.S.

 

As each day goes by, there is something new in the media and on the internet about the Opioid Crisis.  Colorado Public Radio on Jan. 19th talked about how Colorado got its Opioid problem —-“I don’t think you can overstate it. Pick a word, it’s as bad as you could get. More people dying every year than died in the entire Vietnam War,” said Rob Valuck, our keynote speaker at the Denver Medical Study Group meeting next Wednesday, Jan. 31st.

Last night, Rob was on a local news channel where he talked about a particular drug promoted by pharmaceutical companies for mental health issues that originally cost $500, now the price for the same drug is $1,500. As Rob shared about this drug, his point was patients weren’t going to pay out of pocket at the current price for this drug. So what happens when demand drops off, then there is an excess of the supply and price has to go back down. An additional issue Rob shared was this is the way drug manufacturers go out of business —by outpricing the market.

Even Colorado legislature is considering bills related to battling the opioid crisis in Colorado. One of the the more talked about bills in the news is SB18-022: Clinical Practice for Opioid Prescribing Bill. This bill will restrict the number of opioid pills that a health care provider may prescribe for an initial prescription to a seven day supply and one refuill for a seven day supply with certain exceptions.

Next week, Rob will describe the scope and impact of the opioid crisis here and in the U.S. He will help us to understand policy and program solutions being applied at the federal, state and local levels.  Then he will give three concrete steps to reduce opioid misuse in our homes and communities.

You won’t want to miss Rob’s presentation next Wednesday. You can register by clicking on the link below.

http://denvermedicalstudygroup.com/category/upcoming-events/

Sponsored by:

Colorado Medical Society
www.cms.org