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Administrator's Corner: Jeff Dew, President, Knoxville Area, MGMA
For Jeff Dew, CFO of Gastrointestinal Associates in Knoxville, giving back to the community has been one of the highlights of his term as president of the Knoxville Area Medical Group Management Association (KAMGMA). Not surprisingly, for as Dew explained, he is a "local boy" who grew up in Norris, TN, and consequently understands the need for free rural healthcare to be offered in remote areas...
BRIDGET GARLAND |
Practices Recognized for Outstanding Use of IT in Patient Care
During the week of October 13th, East Tennessee Medical News (ETMN) presented four regional practices with the second annual TECHMED Award, recognizing their outstanding use of information technology in patient care. This year’s award, sponsored by Saratoga Technologies and supporting sponsors Mountain States Health Alliance and Mercy Health Partners, was independently judged by the Northeast Tennessee Technology Council and was divided into two categories: practices with 14 physicians and under and practices with 15 or more physicians...
BRIDGET GARLAND |
Utilization of Health Information Exchanges
Shared Health Continues to Forge Ahead
Imagine one of your patients is on vacation and becomes ill. She goes to the emergency room and sees a physician she has never seen before. She can't remember all of the medications she's supposed to take, or all of the diagnoses you have made. The emergency room physician is forced to work with incomplete (and potentially incorrect) information from your patient...
STACY FENTRESS |
Administrator's Corner: Sheena Agee, President, Johnson City MGMA
Most healthcare professionals will tell you they got into the industry to make a difference in people's lives. Often, however, when they move into administration that ability to make a daily impact on someone can be lost in the shuffle of budget meetings, purchase decisions and the like...
JOE MORRIS |
Compliant Checkup = Clean Colon
Gastrointestinal Associates, PC (GIA) in Knoxville performs 900–1000 colonoscopies per month screening patients for risk of colon cancer. As important for detecting initial evidence of a propensity for colon cancer, the follow-up procedure for patients identified with a risk for colon cancer is a vital component for monitoring colon health...
BILL MORRIS |
OB/GYN Utilizes Clinical Experience with Business Education
To Build Disposable Instruments Company
In every outpatient clinic and hospital, there are issues that go unnoticed or ignored. Physicians identify potential problems but are too busy to effectively resolve the issue or do not have the necessary resources. Such was the case for James Patterson, MD, who identified medical instrument sterilization as an issue that is expensive, time consuming, and error-prone.
MEREDITH HULETTE |
Administrator's Corner: Laura Watkins, President, Chattanooga MGMA
While physicians, nurses, and techs receive the bulk of the credit, administration is ultimately one of the key factors that determines the success or failure of any medical institution. Without capable management, even the finest assemblages of medical talent can fall prey to the natural selection that exists in the competitive world of healthcare...
JOHN SEWELL |
Innovative Academy Reduces Patient Error through Electronic, Physical Communication
Patient safety is always of paramount concern in a practice or facility, but with new compliance protocols and other federal and state mandates, the issue is taking on increased importance.
While many are scrambling to put processes and procedures into place, the Holston Medical Group is already well ahead of the curve. It created the Academy of Patient Safety (APS) in 2005 and has been custom-tailoring its approach to the issue ever since...
JOE MORRIS |
MSHA Answers Need for Physicians
mednews plus™ — An Invaluable Online Tool
Whether it's from an office based computer, a wireless laptop or a handheld portable device, in this day, everyone relies on getting information on demand. For physicians, and others in the medical field, it is imperative to be able to access breaking medical news...
LEIGH ANNE W. HOOVER |
New Technology Gives Wellmont Physicians Ability to Read EKGs Any Time, From Anywhere
Wellmont Health System recently began using sophisticated computer technology that allows a physician to diagnose a patient suffering a heart attack any time from anywhere – even from miles away.
Jonathan Burress, MD, of Cardiovascular Associates is excited about what TraceMaster – software designed specifically for use in cardiology–can mean for emergency patients...
BRAD LIFFORD |
Physician Spotlight: Luke Madigan, MD
Luke Madigan, MD, says he just likes to put necks back together—he finds it fascinating. However, as a spine specialist at Knoxville Orthopedic Clinic, Madigan does much more than that.
"I like dealing with patients every day," Madigan said. "Every patient is a puzzle…. You have to put all the pieces together and find out what's wrong with the actual picture..."
CHELSEA FARNAM |
Beyond Physical Therapy, PLLC Announces an Innovative Program to Treat Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy (DPN)
There are a lot of people today who experience painful circulatory problems, specifically in the feet and legs. This condition is known as Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy (DPN). Painful circulatory problems in the feet and legs can prohibit everyday functions from sleeping and walking to driving and performing daily activities. Imagine how those restrictions could feel and then imagine a solution that doesn’t involve medication or painful procedures. This solution presents itself through a program that combines physical therapy with a revolutionary system known as Anodyne®...
JEAN-MARIE DONAHOO |
Diabetes Centers Support Physician Care
Education is key to self-management
Diabetes rates are climbing, and physicians in East Tennessee are diagnosing an ever-increasing number of patients with the disease while continuing to manage existing patients' care. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report a 5 percent yearly increase nationwide, while the number of Tennessee adults with diabetes rose 33 percent between 1990 and 2000, according to a 2003 report from the University of Tennessee Health Science Center...
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Getting Ahead of the Tax Man
The air and the apples are crisp, and football is in full swing. What time is it? Time for some serious tax planning before the end of the calendar year, according to CPA Keith Kamperschroer, immediate past president of Nashville-based HCAA, the National CPA Health Care Advisors Association...
SHARON H. FITZGERALD |
Physician Spotlight: Matthew Beasey, MD
For Matthew Beasey, MD, the path to becoming a top-notch endocrinologist and the Tri-Cities resident expert on diabetes has been more of a country road with many intriguing turns than a direct highway from point a to point b.
After growing up in Shelbyville, Kentucky, outside of Louisville, Beasey began his higher education at the University of Kentucky...
STEVE QUINDRY |
Planning for 2008 Federal Taxes
An increasing number of taxpayers encounter surprise tax bills due to the alternative minimum tax (AMT). The AMT is a parallel calculation of taxable income designed to ensure a minimum amount of tax is collected from taxpayers who benefit from certain deductions, credits, and exemptions under standard tax calculations. Every tax plan should include a projection of potential tax liabilities under AMT...
CHERYL BAXTER AND AMY HOLLEY, LATTIMORE BLACK MORGAN & CAIN, PC |
Diabetes & HBO: Avoiding Amputations
When diabetic patients, insulin dependent or not, begin to show signs of the breakdown of tissue on the lower extremities, the first recommendation I would make is to get them to stop smoking, if they smoke. The second thing to consider is referring these people to a wound healing and hyperbaric oxygen center (HBO)...
THOMAS BEAHM, MD |
Diabetics have same risk for heart attack, stroke or death from cardiovascular diseases as those with prior heart attack
DALLAS—People with diabetes have the same high risk for heart attack or stroke or cardiovascular death as people who've already had a heart attack, researchers reported in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.
"The increased risk was observed in people at all ages with either type 1 or type 2 diabetes who were receiving insulin or other drugs to reduce levels of sugar in the blood," said Tina Ken Schramm, MD, lead author of the study and research fellow at the Gentofte Hospital in Hellerup, Denmark. "When people with diabetes do have heart attacks, they are twice as likely to die as non-diabetics..."
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Physician Spotlight: Charles S. Joels, MD
His patients should rest assured. Charles S. Joels, MD, a vascular surgeon with University Surgical Associates, isn't going anywhere.
"I plan on being here forever," chuckled Joels, who recently joined the group at the end of June. "I'm excited to be here. Several of my patients have had vascular surgeons who have left. For some, I'm their third doctor in three years. They keep asking me, 'Are you staying?' And I tell them I'm not going anywhere..."
BRIDGET GARLAND |
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