by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Oct 29, 2015 | Cassandra Chronicles: Regulatory and Coverage Policy, Miscellaneous Musings, Nutrition & Wound Healing, Pressure Cooker: Rethinking Pressure Ulcers, US Wound Registry
Earlier this month, I showed you some photos of a malnourished patient who I think has improved because of Argenaid. While there may be some things in the past that I miss, I confess that in the past I did not pay sufficient attention to nutritional issues. I’m...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Oct 28, 2015 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care
This is a photo of the patient I mentioned previously this month. It may be hard to get your bearings, but the gauze is over his tracheostomy at the anterior neck. The wound is on the lateral neck and you can see his major neck vessels exposed. This is metastatic...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Oct 26, 2015 | Cassandra Chronicles: Regulatory and Coverage Policy, Miscellaneous Musings, Pressure Cooker: Rethinking Pressure Ulcers, US Wound Registry
On September 28, 2015, CMS made available the 2014 Supplemental Quality and Resource Use Reports (QRURs) to every medical group practice and solo practitioner nationwide. Providers are identified in the Supplemental QRURs by their Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN)....
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Oct 21, 2015 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care
This is not “what is it” but “who is it?” Wednesday. This is Mario Martinez, cped. I am showing this slide as a reminder about how HARD off-loading can be. I can’t take any credit for this serendipitous situation, but it turns out that a terrific Orthotics group is in...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Oct 20, 2015 | Cassandra Chronicles: Regulatory and Coverage Policy
I saw a man who had been treated for tonsillar cancer a few years prior. He had recently undergone a biopsy of a lymph node in the left anterior cervical area and had developed an open draining wound on his neck. He had an HMO insurance policy from a major private...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Oct 20, 2015 | Cassandra Chronicles: Regulatory and Coverage Policy, Miscellaneous Musings, Pressure Cooker: Rethinking Pressure Ulcers, US Wound Registry
How can we get out of this silly problem of trials that don’t enroll our patients to get coverage for patients who really don’t need the product anyway? We need a way to risk stratify wounds that includes patient factors. Thanks to partial funding from a grant by KCI...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Oct 15, 2015 | Cassandra Chronicles: Regulatory and Coverage Policy, Miscellaneous Musings, Pressure Cooker: Rethinking Pressure Ulcers, US Wound Registry
Today I got an in-service on a new product and my Program Director informed me that since we were moving to a new system for ordering supplies and charging them, it was about to become darn near impossible to get new products. I remember back in the early 1990’s I...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Oct 14, 2015 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care
What is this? It’s a relatively new off-loading device called a TOAD or T brace. I am trying it in a patient with bilateral plantar DFUs who is not a good candidate for a total contact cast. Caroline Fife, MD I’ve got a NEW Facebook Page – be sure to follow me there...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Oct 12, 2015 | Cassandra Chronicles: Regulatory and Coverage Policy, Miscellaneous Musings, Pressure Cooker: Rethinking Pressure Ulcers, US Wound Registry
At the recent fall Symposium on the Advancement of Wound Care (SAWC), I had the honor of speaking at the opening session entitled, “The Power of Numbers, Predictive Outcomes in Diverse Populations” with 2 eminent statisticians, Charles Cowan and Nigam Shah. It sounds...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Sep 30, 2015 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care
I never get tired of seeing the before and after of a total contact cast change. This ulcer started out much larger but this is just the change with one week. She was healed the next week. Caroline Fife, MD I’ve got a NEW Facebook Page – be sure to follow me there...
