Face to Face Patient Care
My friends, with six months of my presidential year behind me now, I can really say, as time goes by, it goes by more quickly. So, I feel some urgency to make the most of each chance given me to further our Academy strategy this year. Therefore, on May 5 and continuing through May 7, I hope to join some of you in Washington, DC, to advocate personally for quality patient centered otolaryngic care. With each new Congress, we have the opportunity to advance the targeted legislative issues your Board and other AAO-HNS/F leaders have picked as those where our advocacy can best exercise influence for the good of our patients’ care. The road maps for these efforts, our federal and state issue platforms, are outlined on pages 26 and 27 in this issue. To prepare you for your Capitol Hill visits and this opportunity, our own BOG member-volunteers connect with issue experts to present practical workshops and “backgrounders” that will help us carry the specialty messages to our elected leaders. One of these events, and the most exciting for me, will be the BOG-hosted Presidential Forum that allows our president-elect candidates to address attendees directly on those questions outlined for them by our excellent Nominating Committee. The Hill Visits These member-to-member meetings lead up to the face-to-face meetings with legislators and congressional staff that present the best chance we each have to influence history—the moment each of us can personalize what patient care should be. In these sometimes small yet important offices, our legislators can clearly see in each of us how much we care about our patients. You will be the face of otolaryngologic care for each person you talk to that day. Face to Face with Patients More often than ever the issues we will discuss with these legislators and among ourselves at home involve the integration of care—diagnosis and treatment, outcomes and performance, safety and quality, knowledge and transparency—all of a piece. This coming together of disciplines is changing how we practice medicine. For instance, we often mention the importance of guideline development and a guideline’s “translation to practice” as steps to that integration. When guidelines are introduced, it is the optimal time to think not just of how we will incorporate these new recommendations into our care, but also how we will make new recommendations available to patients. Keeping patients engaged in healthcare decisions is part of what we must do now more than ever when costs are so high and options for care more confusing. To encourage these conversations, last month this organization announced its list of five procedures that physicians and patients should discuss to assess quality care and safety in treatment options. These conversations will involve data and decision-making in a way that is focused and involving for both patients and physicians. Informational materials that can be made available to patients to revisit will be more helpful than ever to the process. In a blog post on the ABIM Foundation Choosing Wisely® website, Executive Vice President Daniel Wolfson, MHSA, wished (from his own patient experience) for the following physician/patient competencies: “Provide me with the clinical evidence about the options for surgery, professional opinions on the best course for my situation, and help me to make the best decision for myself. . . As a patient I want to feel we are in conversation about my health and that he [the physician] is fully present with me.” Our clinical committees are working harder than ever to update the Academy patient information materials in concert with guideline development, product relevancy efforts, and such initiatives as those of the Choosing Wisely® campaign. Join me then in May to personalize care. Come to DC to see your legislators, and at home, take advantage of the tools available like those for Better Hearing and Speech month to help your patients to talk about options. Use the “bonus” patient information leaflet in this Bulletin to help (and see page 46). For more special community outreach materials, login to www.entnet.org/Community/outreach.cfm. Source: The “Other” Physician and Patient Competencies—What’s all the Fuss?; Daniel Wolfson, September 4, 2012. Accessed from http://blog.abimfoundation.org/the-%e2%80%9cother%e2%80%9d-physician-and-patient-competencies%e2%80%94what%e2%80%99s-all-the-fuss.
James L. Netterville, MD AAO-HNS/F PresidentMy friends, with six months of my presidential year behind me now, I can really say, as time goes by, it goes by more quickly. So, I feel some urgency to make the most of each chance given me to further our Academy strategy this year. Therefore, on May 5 and continuing through May 7, I hope to join some of you in Washington, DC, to advocate personally for quality patient centered otolaryngic care.
With each new Congress, we have the opportunity to advance the targeted legislative issues your Board and other AAO-HNS/F leaders have picked as those where our advocacy can best exercise influence for the good of our patients’ care. The road maps for these efforts, our federal and state issue platforms, are outlined on pages 26 and 27 in this issue.
To prepare you for your Capitol Hill visits and this opportunity, our own BOG member-volunteers connect with issue experts to present practical workshops and “backgrounders” that will help us carry the specialty messages to our elected leaders. One of these events, and the most exciting for me, will be the BOG-hosted Presidential Forum that allows our president-elect candidates to address attendees directly on those questions outlined for them by our excellent Nominating Committee.
These member-to-member meetings lead up to the face-to-face meetings with legislators and congressional staff that present the best chance we each have to influence history—the moment each of us can personalize what patient care should be. In these sometimes small yet important offices, our legislators can clearly see in each of us how much we care about our patients. You will be the face of otolaryngologic care for each person you talk to that day.
Face to Face with Patients
More often than ever the issues we will discuss with these legislators and among ourselves at home involve the integration of care—diagnosis and treatment, outcomes and performance, safety and quality, knowledge and transparency—all of a piece. This coming together of disciplines is changing how we practice medicine. For instance, we often mention the importance of guideline development and a guideline’s “translation to practice” as steps to that integration. When guidelines are introduced, it is the optimal time to think not just of how we will incorporate these new recommendations into our care, but also how we will make new recommendations available to patients.
Keeping patients engaged in healthcare decisions is part of what we must do now more than ever when costs are so high and options for care more confusing. To encourage these conversations, last month this organization announced its list of five procedures that physicians and patients should discuss to assess quality care and safety in treatment options. These conversations will involve data and decision-making in a way that is focused and involving for both patients and physicians.
Informational materials that can be made available to patients to revisit will be more helpful than ever to the process. In a blog post on the ABIM Foundation Choosing Wisely® website, Executive Vice President Daniel Wolfson, MHSA, wished (from his own patient experience) for the following physician/patient competencies: “Provide me with the clinical evidence about the options for surgery, professional opinions on the best course for my situation, and help me to make the best decision for myself. . . As a patient I want to feel we are in conversation about my health and that he [the physician] is fully present with me.”
Our clinical committees are working harder than ever to update the Academy patient information materials in concert with guideline development, product relevancy efforts, and such initiatives as those of the Choosing Wisely® campaign. Join me then in May to personalize care. Come to DC to see your legislators, and at home, take advantage of the tools available like those for Better Hearing and Speech month to help your patients to talk about options. Use the “bonus” patient information leaflet in this Bulletin to help (and see page 46).
For more special community outreach materials, login to www.entnet.org/Community/outreach.cfm.
Source:
The “Other” Physician and Patient Competencies—What’s all the Fuss?; Daniel Wolfson, September 4, 2012. Accessed from http://blog.abimfoundation.org/the-%e2%80%9cother%e2%80%9d-physician-and-patient-competencies%e2%80%94what%e2%80%99s-all-the-fuss.
