QVRs

These three little letters occasionally send shivers and quivers down one's spine. Docs often feel that they are on the receiving end of such reports. Bear in mind that the medical staff is responsible for the quality of care at Grossmont. If you have a concern about quality, submitting a QVR is one way of making your voice heard. Now before you start cringing about how you don't have time to do a QVR or how cumbersome it is, here are your options:

1. Dictate the QVR on the doctor's dictation line - use work type code 45

2. Call Annette Guinther, senior quality analyst, at 619-740-4693. You may leave her a voicemail if she is not there.

3. If you are quick with a computer, as you Cernerphiles among our staff are, log onto the Sharp intranet, click the letter "Q" on the top of the page, choose QVR, and populate the required fields. You can be as brief or detailed as you choose.

4. You can always call the Physician Hotline at extension 3333 if you are really stuck.

Remember - quality of care is a joint responsibility of the hospital, its employees, and the physicians. For the sake of our patients, if you don't speak up, then problems can't be identified and fixed.

Tips from the Trenches: Cerner

Now don't tune out just because the six-letter C-word has appeared. The Grossmont Hospital Medical Staff is to be commended for leading the system in computerized physician order entry. Furthermore, this medical staff has boldly gone where few have gone before -electronic progress notes.

The purpose of the progress note is to communicate your findings with other healthcare providers, document your visit with the patient for future use, and yes, it is to protect you if your care is called into question by a peer review committee, a medical malpractice action, or a billing/insurance auditor.

With Cerner, it's easy to pre-populate progress notes, cutting and pasting from previous notes or other parts of the chart. Be careful that you don't turn your progress note into a mish-mash, a hodge-podge, smorgasbord, or a potpourri. Even with cutting and pasting, you are responsible for the content that you are signing off on. Take a moment to review what you have pre-populated or pasted to see if it is still relevant to the current problem.

Most of us use the SOAP format for progress notes. We often feel that the most relevant part of our colleagues' notes on mutual patients, the part that we are interested in reading, is at then end of the note in the form of Assessment or Impression and Plan. You can always scroll down to the bottom of a progress note to review the plan if you are in a hurry. Scrolling training is available upon request. And, don't forget the ingenious device invented by Alexander Graham Bell, the telephone. Call your colleagues if you just don't understand their progress note and what they are doing with your patient. Doctor-to-doctor communication - what a concept! Let's talk.

Monday, September 12
5:30 pm Wine/Hors d'oeuvres
6 pm Presentation
Auditorium
SPOUSES WELCOME

An invitation from Rina Jain, MD, Chief of Staff

Please attend the General Medical Staff meeting on Monday, September 12, 2011 at 6:00 pm. We have a great speaker lined up for you. The multi-talented Dr. Neil Farber will be coming from Wisconsin to chat with us about creating a positive work environment. Considering that a huge portion of our lives is spent working, it would be logical to try to make our jobs work for us.

Dr. Farber is originally from Toronto, having moved to the US as a child. He has a BSc in psychology. He went to the Medical College of Wisconsin and subsequently became an anesthesiologist. He still practices pediatric anesthesia in Milwaukee and serves on various hospital committees. He also obtained a PhD in Pharmacology while in med school.

In addition, he has been a patient. He has suffered many orthopedic injuries and has had extensive surgical treatments. He has experienced much adversity yet he has risen to those challenges and persevered to overcome his obstacles. He has various interests including martial arts, meditation, and charitable work. Even with all the adversity that he has faced, he and his wife have gone on medical missions throughout the world to help those less fortunate.

Dr. Farber has authored the book "The Blame Game", which I found fascinating. His advice seems to be so commonsense and logical, yet why can't we seem to remember these things when faced with conflict? His website is http://www.dhwi.net/Home_Page.html in case you want to check it out.

Attention tennis players!

Now is the time to start planning for the SGH Medical Staff Happiness Committeee tennis tournament. Drinks, snacks, trophies. The date is Wednesday, September 14. The place is Singing Hills. The time is 3 PM.

It will be a doubles competition. May the best man or woman win!

The cost is $10 and must be paid at least one week in advance so we can reserve the proper number of courts.

Dr. Friedel and the Happiness Committee are looking forward to seeing as many doctors as possible there. All levels of talent can be accommodated. Make reservations with Lesley Bradley (lesley.bradley@sharp.com or 619-740-4145).

-September 12 - General Medical Staff Meeting, 5:30 pm, Main Auditorium, Spouses Welcome

-September 14 - A Tennis Afternoon - check out the giant tennis ball above for details!

-November 4 - Dancing with the Doctors

-Bowling and Softball - to be announced!

-December 6 - SGH Medical Staff Holiday Party

Are you interested in seeing a recently published issue of the E-Bulletin?