Welcome to Progress Notes On-Line and the Physician Resource Center. All of the Progress Notes regular features are here for your review – Patient Safety, Risk Management, Pharmacy, Research Institute and CME, Government Affairs, Oncology Update, Infection Control and Physician Informatics Update. While new features will appear every three months (April, July, October and January), Government Affairs and Pharmacy content are updated on an as-needed basis. I hope that Progress Notes will continue to be a valuable resource for you and your practice. Please let me know how we can make Progress Notes even better.
Carl Manelius
Director, Physician Affairs and Progress Notes Managing Editor
Opinion:
At the time of this writing, Congress is debating many aspects of healthcare reform. For healthcare reform to be successful, it will require practitioners to weigh in on the true “value” of care for our patients. This would involve restructuring care to capture the estimated 30% loss (750 billion dollars) deficits in quality.
Dr. Rizzo Named Vice Chair of Pa. Medical Society Board of Trustees
The Pennsylvania Medical Society has named Karen A. Rizzo, MD, FACS, of Lancaster, vice chair of the Pennsylvania Medical Society’s Board of Trustees. Dr. Rizzo is an otolaryngologist at Lancaster General Health.
Click here to read more.
Feature Article:
Time(ing) is of the Essence Lancaster General Health underwent its unannounced tri-annual TJC (Joint Commission) survey August 10-14, 2009; the survey team, as during previous surveys, was extremely impressed with the staff, their commitment to patient care in providing and extraordinary experience, their focus on patient safety and performance improvement, and the vibrant atmosphere of our physical environment and state-of-the-art technology.
Click here to read more.
Clinical Trials:
Educating Patients at Every Opportunity
Enrolling in a clinical trial should be part of the first line of potential cancer treatments for patients, not an out-of-options last resort. To help increase access to clinical trials, Lancaster General Health has an oncology clinical trials department staffed by well-trained clinicians who have access to a broad variety of clinical research studies involving the major types of cancer treated within the health system.
Click here to read more.
Risk Management:
Jeopardy: Category -“Abbr”
One million dollars just may be the verdict for a malpractice claim that resulted in patient harm due to the use of an unapproved abbreviation. Using unapproved abbreviations can lead to confusion and/or misinterpretation resulting in medical errors that can be detrimental and have devastating outcomes to both inpatients and outpatients.
Click here to read more.
Government Affairs:
State Budget Shortfall Grows
The figures, released by the Department of Revenue last week show that the state took in $3 billion in General Fund dollars last month. That is $941.5 million, or about 24.2 percent, less than anticipated. Previous estimates put the projected fiscal-year shortfall at $2.3 billion, but lawmakers said they now expect a deficit of $2.6 - $3 billion by June 30.
Click here to read more.
New Discharge Assessment Form
Beginning October 1st, through a cooperative effort between Case Management and Social Work, discharge planning information can be found under the discharge section of the patient chart. A new Case Management/Social Work Discharge Assessment Form
(click here to view) will replace the SW/CM notes currently written in the progress notes. Our goal is to eliminate having to page through the progress notes to find various notes regarding discharge assessment and planning. Utilization of this new form will allow “one-stop shopping” when searching for pertinent discharge information.
Please contact Julianne Reid (544-5694) or Tina Martin (544-8033) if you have questions or concerns.
Thank you.
The Care Management Department
Lancaster Medical Society Foundation Scholarship
Lancaster Medical Society Foundation grants scholarships to students from Lancaster County planning to go to medical school who show financial need. Awards are made without regard to race, creed, color or sex. Academic achievement, character and motivation are taken into consideration.
Click here for more information and for the application.
Dinner for two at one of Lancaster’s fine restaurants?
That’s the prize if you
enter to win and your name is randomly selected from the list of readers.
Recent prize winner include:
- Matthew Bacharach, MD
- David Emmert, MD
- Paul Casale, MD
- Scot Lauter, MD
* Be sure to monitor the Government Affairs site for information on key legislative issues. This site will be updated as issues are identified and reported by news sources.