by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Oct 11, 2017 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care
I have received many emails about the newly released Wound Care Local Coverage Determination (LCD) released by Novitas, the Medicare Administrative Carrier (MAC) for the following states: Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi,...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Oct 9, 2017 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care, Quality Payment Program
…and how truthful reporting of healing rates could save the field of wound care In 2016, the quality data of all the physicians participating in the Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS) became publicly available for the first time on the CMS Physician...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Oct 4, 2017 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care
I’d like to frame a discussion about the cost of chronic wound care, through the lens of a wonderful patient. She’s an 80 yo woman with severe peripheral arterial disease and chronic limb ischemia who had already had multiple endovascular interventions in her legs....
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Sep 28, 2017 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care
Here’s the good news- this patient had a limb threatening diabetic foot ulcer that might be the deepest and biggest lesion I have ever treated with a total contact cast, and it healed. However, I had to keep her in the TCC while we waited for the paperwork from...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Sep 25, 2017 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care, The Patient's Voice
Wound care is so gratifying. I love watching things get better. This is a wonderful patient who required 6 months to heal after surgery for osteomyelitis. He got his orthotics and I thought we were home free, but his fig trees bloomed and he spent an afternoon picking...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Sep 22, 2017 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care
I am really struggling with lymphedema and skin breakdown on the foot of a wonderful patient. He has an above knee amputation on the other side, and is actually able to walk on an AKA prosthesis which is rare in my experience. The fact that this is his ONLY foot makes...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Sep 8, 2017 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care, Nutrition & Wound Healing, Quality Payment Program
What you put IN the patient may be as important as what you put ON them I have been focusing more on nutrition with my patients. Sometimes nutrition is the medicine. This is a wonderful patient over 90 years old who is still driving and mentally alert. He sustained...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Sep 7, 2017 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care, Nutrition & Wound Healing, Quality Payment Program
What you put IN the patient may be as important as what you put ON them I have been focusing more on nutrition with my patients. It’s so easy to overlook nutritional issues. Recently I saw a fairly young woman who suffered from juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis and...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Sep 5, 2017 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care, Nutrition & Wound Healing, Quality Payment Program
What you put IN the patient may be as important as what you put ON them I have been focusing more on nutrition with my patients. It is amazing how prevalent nutritional deficits are among patients with non-healing wounds. In late March I saw a woman with severe ulcers...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Sep 1, 2017 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care
When the sun broke through for the first time on this Tuesday at about 6 PM, I went outside to take a picture of the sky. The sun looked so beautiful. That day pictures of the sun were everywhere on social media. Most days in August, Texans long for a break from the...
