About Dr. Fife
Dr. Fife is a world-renowned wound care physician. She is the Director of the Wound Care Center at CHI St. Luke’s The Woodlands Hospital, CMO of Intellicure, Inc., Exec. Director of the US Wound Registry & Editor of Today’s Wound Clinic.
Report Honest Healing Rates
It’s time for Wound Care physicians and providers to stand up for truly honest outcomes and transparent quality reporting. If we don’t we may see our entire profession wiped out. Click here to read more.
Resource Room
Explore Dr. Fife’s ever-growing library of helpful content related to Wound Care and MIPS. From videos to instructional materials, this knowledge base is completely yours to enjoy and use.
Latest Posts
A Peek at Real World Use of Cellular and/or Tissue Based Product (CTP) Use – On the Eve of Episode-Based Payment
The US Wound Registry (USWR) performed very high-level analytics on data available in its Cellular and/or Tissue Based Product Registry. Here’s what we found out.
Why Quality of Life Failed Miserably as a Surrogate Endpoint for Wound Outcome
Find out why you need to be wearing body armor to talk to me about wound-related quality of life.
The “Potemkin Village” of Wound Management and the Wounds with No Name
The current paradigm of wound care research is a “Potemkin village” that could destroy the clinical field of wound care.
Happy Valentine’s Day to My Wonderful Nurses
Did you know St. Valentine is the patron saint of lovers, epileptics and beekeepers? And also Wound Care nurses… definitely wound care nurses.
Bad News on an HBOT Audit
Are YOU “too busy” to properly document new patients in your EHR?
It’s the Price, Stupid: How Dressing Product Use Will Be Different in Office-Based Wound Care
I remain mystified that manufacturers have not supported quality reporting.
Attention all Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine Specialists – You May Not Be Able to Order Home Health Services
I think that even wound management practitioners who DO NOT practice hyperbaric medicine should change their specialty code to Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine if they want to survive healthcare reform.
Savor It
Today I will savor the companionship of the dedicated people I work with, the blessing of meaningful work, the privilege of easing human suffering and the satisfaction of healing horrible wounds.
Winning the Technology Race in Wound Care | Today’s Wound Clinic
Read more in this month’s editorial from “Today’s Wound Care”.
Post Marketing Clinical Follow Up (PMCF), the European Union and Club Sandwich Wound Dressings
We spend a lot of resources on dressings, but is anyone interested in what we get for the money?
Questions about General and Direct Supervision in the HOPD
The reclassification of all services in the Hospital Based Outpatient Department (HOPD) to “general supervision” away from “direct supervision” has the potential to create chaos.
Dear Manufacturer of Wound Care Products and Devices…
I would provide the address where you could mail my check for consulting, but no one pays for advice they don’t want to hear.
One Man’s Waste…
Although we are doing better, when it comes to wound management, there are still things we know we should do that we do NOT do.
The Movie “Contagion” and Wuhan
The speed of global travel has changed the game for disease spread. Wuhan isn’t the stuff of fiction yet, but these outbreaks always make you think, “what if?”
Late Night Thoughts on HBOT Prior Authorization – About the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Daily Digest Bulletin
We don’t dispute that CMS needs a way to handle overuse and improper use. However, it doesn’t seem like this is the right way.
How to Change Your Specialty Code
Today we're re-visiting last year's post about Changing Your Physician Specialty Code. It's a relatively fast and simple process - but for Wound Care Practitioners, it's an important step. Changing your designation to D4 will decrease the chances that you...
How to Find Your HCC Score
I’m re-posting these helpful instructions for finding your HCC score from a previous guest post by Dr. Helen Gelly. The importance of your HCC score cannot be overstated!
How Wound Care May Change, For Better and Worse, in 2020 | From Today’s Wound Clinic
The field of wound management is in for a lot of big changes in 2020. As with anything in life, some changes are painful, but they could have beneficial aspects for both clinicians and patients.
CMS Report on HBOT Prior Authorization
The ACA – To Be or Not To Be…?
Last week on Dec. 18, 2019, a Fifth Circuit appeals panel upheld Judge O’Connor’s ruling, determining that the individual mandate (to buy insurance) under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is unconstitutional in the absence of a tax penalty. However, the appeals court did not offer a decision as to whether the rest of the ACA remains in force.
Solve One Person’s Problem with Operation Santa
There are, it seems, a few problems that we can actually solve.
What’s the Difference Between Hyperbaric Registries?
We need all the data we can get in the fields of wound care and hyperbaric medicine.
Here’s Some of the Actual Writing on the Wall
Am I the only one who’s worried? (OK, it’s fair to say I’m panicking.)
From Today’s Wound Clinic: The Handwriting on the Wall for Wound Management
Re-printed from Today's Wound Clinic We are at an important crossroads in the field of wound management. From the perspective of new technologies, the future is bright. Unfortunately, the future of the field itself is dismal. Under Medicare’s new Quality Payment...
Our Physician Compare Article is in This Month’s Issue of “Advances in Skin & Wound Care”
More wound relevant quality measures are under consideration by CMS for depiction on Physician Compare in 2020.
UPDATE: Wounds are a SYMPTOM – What’s the Diagnosis? Crowdsourcing Tough Wound Diagnoses
A few weeks ago we began an experiment right here on this blog, taking a look at a complicated wound care case and “crowdsourcing” the diagnosis. We thought it would be fun to share some of the comments to date, along with some follow-up comments from me.
Revisiting “Squanto and the Miracle of Thanksgiving”
A life story you just can’t make up.
