From the CMO Corner

Welcome to the first edition of the Alaska Regional e-newsletter, Alaska Regional Physician’s Quarterly. On behalf of myself and the entire medical staff, we are excited to launch this new communication tool. We will publish quarterly editions, covering important topics that range from healthcare quality to governance, and will highlight staff and providers who exemplify Alaska Regional’s mission to treat all patients, family, and co-workers as we would our most cherished loved ones.

If you have ideas for topics you would like to see covered in future issues, please contact Sonja Richison, Medical Staff Services Manager, Kjerstin Lastufka, Communications Director, or myself.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Moving Ahead

It has been a whirlwind eight months since my wife Sheryl and I arrived in Anchorage from Billings, Montana. Since then, I have gotten to know many of you. Already, I am proud of the improvements we have accomplished and the new projects we are starting together. Here are highlights of significant developments I have been directing since joining Alaska Regional. These are just some of Alaska Regional’s more measureable accomplishments. At the same time, new projects are always in process.

Thank you to everyone who stepped into leadership roles to advance these improvements. I look forward to more of you contributing to these efforts as we continue to elevate care quality, patient safety, and patient and provider satisfaction at Alaska Regional.

• Revising peer review process so that it is more structured and education focused
• Adopting medical staff bylaws and a new credentialing policy
• Reorganizing the quality team with a greater focus on performance improvement, staff, and provider engagement
• Revising the supply and materials management process to include the input of providers and staff in streamlining and adopting new technology and equipment, while helping control patient care costs
• Initiating a perioperative council to give physicians a voice in OR operations and management, and to help improve efficiency and provider satisfaction

Got Burnout?

Discourse, Discussion & Treatment

Recently, one of your colleagues shared a well written article discussing the increasing prevalence of physician burnout within the United States medical system. As regulations mount, more intrusions sneak into your workflow such as the growth of EHR platforms. Providers are increasingly measured by efficiency metrics, often at the expense of more meaningful patient interactions, resulting in caregiver dissatisfaction and disengagement.

Those of us in hospital administration cannot completely mitigate the effects of physician stressors, though we are committed to helping identify areas of inefficiency and unsafe care practices, then work closely with you toward reaching solutions. At the same time, it is critical that you also reach out to us with your concerns so we can improve physician engagement by removing roadblocks. It is a process that requires fortitude, patience, and teamwork. If we work together and hold the patient at the center of all we do, we will eventually arrive at a better place for all of us who have committed our careers to the “care and improvement of human life.”

Source: HealthAffairs.org

Quality Update

This year, Alaska Regional’s major focus is on reducing unexpected mortalities and eliminating hospital-acquired infections, specifically MRSA and Clostridium difficile.

Alaska Regional’s mortality observed-to-expected ratio (O/E ratio) of 1.31 is still too high. Our greatest opportunities for lowering this include improving the identification and treatment of patients with early sepsis, which includes using the SEP-1 sepsis bundle, a CMS required core measure. We are also assessing significant opportunities in the early identification of patients with end-of-life conditions who will benefit from conversations around palliative care and DNR status. As you are treating patients in these categories, please consider the hospital’s tools and resources available to give guidance and help us reduce unnecessary deaths. If you have ideas that may help us with this initiative, please contact myself of Sherry Fenton, Director of Quality.

We also have two important infection reduction initiatives which we rolled out this past quarter. The surgical site infection (SSI) reduction program benefits the hospital and provider clinics, offering tools and algorithms to screen for MRSA and MSSA, and to initiate treatment that helps decolonize patients before their surgery, reducing the risk of post-surgical infection. Additional details will be available in the next few months.

A new C. difficile screening and treatment program was also launched with the help of our Infection Control team and Jenny Mayo in the microbiology lab. Cutting-edge diagnostic equipment in the lab, along with a better testing protocol, promises to help us curb this very disabling and potentially lethal condition.

On the Radar

In the coming weeks, you will learn about a new mobile communication platform called “iMobile.” This is a secure, encrypted texting option that allows you to communicate directly with nursing via text messaging, receive critical patient updates, lab work, and room number assignments for admitted patients. iMobile is an app that downloads directly to your phone, helping reduce the number of redundant or unnecessary phone calls. Look for upcoming training sessions and feel free to contact myself or the IT&S team with any questions.