Celebrating success
CMMI program celebrated The success of FLHSA’s Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) award was highlighted during a celebration with staff and members of the Rochester Health Innovation Collaborative in November. The initiative in 65 primary care practices showed a 50-percent drop in hospital admissions and a 40-percent drop in emergency room visits for people who received care management. His Branches Health Services was an active part of the CMMI project for the past 2+ years and has been extremely grateful for the support and training we have received. Click here to...
Read MorePenalize doctors?
Moving Toward Outcome Measures by Leigh Page As physician payment begins to shift to value-based payments, the measures of quality care will slowly move from processes to outcomes. That’s a relief for some doctors who have never liked reporting process measures and instead wanted to be judged by their outcomes. But outcomes also present a new burden: Doctors will be held accountable for patients who don’t improve because they aren’t following the treatment plan they recommended. “Most doctors don’t mind being judged on their quality of care,” says Kevin...
Read MoreGNOC Banquet
A Town and Gown Celebration Thursday evening a group of us who serve at Joy Family Medicine scooted out of the office in time to fill a table of 8 at the first annual Gerhardt Neighborhood Outreach Center (GNOC) Banquet. Dr. Morehouse and Susan were joined at the elegant Shadow Lake event by Ali and Greg Reeves, April, Gloria, Jen, and Susan Kerr for a dress-up evening of dinner and great jazz entertainment with Alvin Parris and band where we learned more about the GNOC and heard some wonderfully encouraging testimonies. At the end of the evening an award was presented for “Outstanding...
Read MoreAn interesting mystery
Study Suggests Placebo Benefits CNN (10/27, Scutti) reports that findings from “a new study published in…Pain suggest that a placebo can have real, even profound, physical benefits.” The study’s participants, all of whom had chronic lower back pain, were divided into two groups, one of which continued to receive nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medications, and another that “received their usual pain drugs as well as placebo pills in a typical prescription medicine bottle.” These participants “were told that a placebo pill contained no medication, and the bottle’s label read ‘Placebo...
Read MoreHeart Failure Risk
NSAIDs Increase Heart Failure Risk A research study recently published in the British Medical Journal found that people who used some commonly used non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs, see list below) had a 19% higher risk of hospital admission for heart failure overall. The study further found that the rate was much higher for Toradol (ketorolac – 83%), than for Aleve (naproxen – 16%), and some such as Celebrex (celecoxib) were associated with little or no increased risk. In an accompanying editorial, Dr. Gunnar H. Gislason, chief scientific officer of the Danish Heart...
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