by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Mar 30, 2015 | Do the Right Thing: Thoughts on Quality, Quality Payment Program, US Wound Registry
I had given up on ever getting any wound care quality measures into PQRS. CMS wouldn’t consider measures without NQF endorsement, the NQF didn’t consider measures that were not in their specific categories (priorities that they get FROM CMS which also funds the work...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Mar 19, 2015 | Do the Right Thing: Thoughts on Quality
In the 1990s, before the surgical dressing policy, patients used to come in with paper towels and underwear on their wounds because it was so hard to get dressings. I am seeing this again. It reminds me of the 1990s. Why are we moving backwards when it comes to...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Mar 17, 2015 | Do the Right Thing: Thoughts on Quality
I’d like to set the record straight once and for all about transcutaneous oximetry in assessing patients with non-healing wounds. I am not sure why this is so hard. Let’s begin by agreeing that wound healing is a beautifully physiological designed process which...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Mar 12, 2015 | Do the Right Thing: Thoughts on Quality
I spent a lot of my time on the university faculty in trouble for something. In the early 1990s I started worrying about the morbidity and mortality rates of my patients who were going for peripheral bypass surgery. We used to say, “Fem-pop, chop-chop, hop-hop.” The...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Mar 4, 2015 | Do the Right Thing: Thoughts on Quality, Quality Payment Program
Good Morning Everyone, I attended the American Venous Forum (AVF) 27th Annual Meeting last week. For those of you who are not aware of the AVF, here is a short explanation from their website. The American Venous Forum (AVF), is dedicated to improving the care of...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Feb 23, 2015 | Do the Right Thing: Thoughts on Quality, Quality Payment Program
I just finished a chapter on quality measures for the 2nd edition of the Wound Care Certification Study Guide. I tallied up the penalties that a clinician who is not participating in any of the various programs will incur in 2015 and it’s about 5.5% of their Medicare...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Feb 12, 2015 | Do the Right Thing: Thoughts on Quality
A longitudinal study in the United Kingdom of 370 patients with diabetic foot ulcers performed over 31 months showed that 33% of patients never became ulcer free. In other words, the healing rate for DFUs was about 66% in 2005. What is the healing rate of DFUs overall...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Feb 5, 2015 | Do the Right Thing: Thoughts on Quality
These photos are from 1993. Back then I ran a leg ulcer clinic patterned after the Duke Dermatologist Claude Burton, creator of the “Duke Boot.” That was a piece of Duoderm covered by an Unna’s boot. The clinic was very smelly but we had an 85% healing rate when I...
