Tag: western-maryland-health-system
What the NY Times Missed In Its Praise of Maryland Healthcare
August 29th, 2013by: Dr. Angelo Falcone
The NY Times on Wednesday published a much needed and fairly adulatory story about the Maryland healthcare system, focusing much of its praise on Western Maryland Health System – a long time MEP partner. The story rightly pointed out two key differences between Maryland’s healthcare system and all the other states. One is the “Total […]
read articlePosted in Future of Healthcare, Hospital Partnership, Observation Care, Transition Care
Closing the Provider-Psych Patient Information Gap
August 26th, 2013by: Dr. Jeremy Tucker
In the emergency department, psychiatric patients can be particularly challenging. Evaluation in the ED is primarily based on history from many different sources–police, family, EMS, many times second hand or on a written report or petition. Often, family does not accompany the patient to the ED. Patients can be unreliable, intoxicated or just plain unable […]
read articlePosted in Quality Efficiency Utilization
What is observation care? Clearing up common misperceptions
February 7th, 2013by: Dr. Robbin Dick
To treat observation care as simply a loophole that allows hospitals to avoid the Medicare penalties from readmissions — as Brad Wright, an assistant professor of health management and policy at the University of Iowa did earlier this month on KevinMD.com — is to take a short-sighted approach to a complex health issue. Observation care in […]
read articlePosted in Observation Care
Don’t Give Up on Information Technology in Healthcare
January 25th, 2013by: Dr. Michael Cetta
Right now, the technology exists to completely transform healthcare. A doctor should be able to walk into the room where a patient is waiting for them and get everything they need to make an informed decision about that patient’s care. Location-based technology should sense the doctor approaching and already know which patient is waiting for […]
read articlePosted in Future of Healthcare
New Observation Unit at WMHS Meets Growing Trend
July 22nd, 2011by: Dr. Rob Flint
We are proud to announce the opening of a new observation medicine unit at Western Maryland Health System (WMHS) in Cumberland, MD. We believe observation medicine will be a growing specialty as health care reform changes the way health care is delivered in the United States. The concept is to allow a focused, intense evaluation of certain patients […]
read articlePosted in Observation Care
RAC Audits – Big Brother is Watching You (and Our Hospital Partners too)
July 6th, 2011by: Dr. Aaron Snyder
In November 2009, the National Medical Fee For Service Error Rate, was estimated by the US government to be $24,000,000,000 dollars. Yes, twenty four BILLION dollars. Well guess what, Uncle Sam wants this back. On January 1, 2011, hospitals nationwide received audits from RAC auditors, or Recovery Audit Contractors. In essence, these are private contractors […]
read articlePosted in Hospital Partnership, Observation Care