by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Sep 17, 2015 | Cassandra Chronicles: Regulatory and Coverage Policy, Miscellaneous Musings, Pressure Cooker: Rethinking Pressure Ulcers, US Wound Registry
This month I am reminding you about some educational materials to mitigate litigation risk available in a new book by my friend Kevin Yankowsky. Check out a presentation Kevin and I did at Medline’s “Prevention Above All” conference a few years ago entitled,...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Sep 10, 2015 | Cassandra Chronicles: Regulatory and Coverage Policy, Miscellaneous Musings, Pressure Cooker: Rethinking Pressure Ulcers, US Wound Registry
Last week I told you about the new book on preventive legal care by my friend Kevin Yankowsky who often speaks at national wound care meetings. You would have to pay to see him at the SAWC, but you can access a video training workshop for free. Topics include: The...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Sep 7, 2015 | Cassandra Chronicles: Regulatory and Coverage Policy, Miscellaneous Musings, Pressure Cooker: Rethinking Pressure Ulcers, US Wound Registry
The drug industry, patients and consumers are urging the FDA to find better ways to integrate the patient perspective in drug development, as well as a way to use “real world” data in drug development. It will be interesting to see how the FDA reacts to the growing...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Sep 3, 2015 | Cassandra Chronicles: Regulatory and Coverage Policy, Miscellaneous Musings, Pressure Cooker: Rethinking Pressure Ulcers, US Wound Registry
I wanted to alert you to a great new (short but information packed) book, Preventative Legal Care: A Practitioner’s Guide to Medical-Legal Fitness, by my friend Kevin Yankowsky, at Norton, Rose Fulbright. This easy to read book provides practical, real-world...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Aug 31, 2015 | Cassandra Chronicles: Regulatory and Coverage Policy, Miscellaneous Musings, Pressure Cooker: Rethinking Pressure Ulcers, US Wound Registry
I mentioned a “pay for performance” model that CMS is trying out for Home Health Agencies. Well, an AHRQ study published in the British Medical Journal explored ways in which data were collected and used in Nursing Homes as a result of participation in a...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Aug 27, 2015 | Cassandra Chronicles: Regulatory and Coverage Policy, Miscellaneous Musings, Pressure Cooker: Rethinking Pressure Ulcers, US Wound Registry
Here are 2 binders full of nursing notes on a patient with a pressure ulcer. I spent about 6 hours trying to find an entry that was different from the ones “auto-populated” day after day after day for weeks. In other words, the previous days observations were just...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Aug 20, 2015 | Cassandra Chronicles: Regulatory and Coverage Policy, Health Information Technology and Wound Care, Miscellaneous Musings, Pressure Cooker: Rethinking Pressure Ulcers, US Wound Registry
Here’s a note from a hospital EHR. The nurse has typed into the record so it’s legible, but you can’t use the data for anything because there’s no place to put or retrieve measurements or wound products and no place to put photos. This is what is happening in most...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Aug 17, 2015 | Cassandra Chronicles: Regulatory and Coverage Policy, Miscellaneous Musings, Pressure Cooker: Rethinking Pressure Ulcers, US Wound Registry
I’ve previously posted information about the way that Congress got out of the annual “Doc Fix” problem with new legislation that restructures physician payment based on a variety of quality programs. Recently, Medicare trustees have warned that by 2048 physician pay...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Aug 13, 2015 | Cassandra Chronicles: Regulatory and Coverage Policy, Miscellaneous Musings, Pressure Cooker: Rethinking Pressure Ulcers, US Wound Registry
Here is a note from a doctor I worked with for years who is one of the best clinicians I ever had the privilege to practice with. I hope they won’t read this blog and ever find out that I used one of their notes as an example of a fabulous doctor with illegible...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Aug 6, 2015 | Cassandra Chronicles: Regulatory and Coverage Policy, Miscellaneous Musings, Pressure Cooker: Rethinking Pressure Ulcers, US Wound Registry
I have been thinking a lot about whether we have or haven’t improved how we keep patient health records. Here’s a record from the 1800’s when the primary purpose of the record was to remind the doctor what the patient had complained about and what he had done about...
