Published: July 31, 2019

Disaster preparedness for your medical practice

Recent fires, hurricanes, and floods nationwide have highlighted the importance of planning for disasters. A checklist can provide the framework for a comprehensive disaster plan. The checklist should include:

SPONSORED CONTENT FROM AAO-HNS ACADEMY ADVANTAGE PREMIER PARTNER: The Doctors Company

Julie Brightwell, JD, RN, Director, Healthcare System Patient Safety, The Doctors Company

Recent fires, hurricanes, and floods nationwide have highlighted the importance of planning for disasters. A checklist can provide the framework for a comprehensive disaster plan. The checklist should include:

A full-circle call tree
Instructions for setting up instant messaging technology that enables staff to communicate without a wireless network or cellular data connection
Instructions for securing records of patients undergoing diagnostic testing and a list of outstanding diagnostic studies
Guidelines for maintaining Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) compliance
A Certificate of Insurance for your medical malpractice coverage, or instructions for contacting your agent or insurer directly to obtain proof of coverage. This document will be necessary if you are forced to temporarily relocate your practice or procedures
Verification that home health agencies caring for your patients have plans in place to provide adequate services in a disaster
Steps to follow upon returning from evacuation
Planning today makes accomplishing the following tasks more feasible during a disaster:

Communication

Contact staff immediately to determine realistic return-to-work time frames
Notify external vendors and business associates of your practice interruption and targeted resumption of operation
Implement staff briefings at the beginning and end of each day
Create temporary phone, fax, and answering services
Establish patient telephone triage
Implement temporary controls to ensure HIPAA compliance

Computers and systems

Contact computer service vendors to ensure integrity and recovery
Verify insurance coverage for repair or replacement costs and losses
Evaluate applicable warranties and consider an information technology restoration service contract
Inventory and document hardware and software
Document the type and extent of both lost electronic and paper data
Ensure data back up and periodically test compliance
Reestablish filing systems and internal programs

Medical records

Determine the extent of damage to, or loss of, patient records and filing systems
Attempt to restore all damaged charts and document inventory findings
Notify the state medical board for specific guidance pertaining to lost or damaged records
Document all efforts to restore and protect existing records
Reconstruct lost charts at the next patient encounter
Contact your insurance carrier for restorative services and/or claim procedures
Reestablish a filing system and temporary storage if necessary
Obtain legal guidance for patient notification during recovery efforts
Contemporaneously date and initial all late entries and duplicate information in context of recovery efforts.

More from August 2019 – Vol. 38, No. 7

Philippine Bot

The Philippine Society of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery: T- plus 63 years and counting…

The Philippine Society of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery (PSO-HNS) has had its share of adversity before attaining the stature it now enjoys.

Shaye

Service and leadership awards presented at Annual Meeting

The Gold Foundation Humanism in Medicine Award recognizes members committed to practicing otolaryngology with compassionate, patient-centered care.

Wilkinson

Eric P. Wilkinson, MD New Millennium Society Lifetime Donor

The AAO-HNS foundation is pleased to recognize Eric P. Wilkinson, MD, who recently became a Millennium Society Lifetime Donor through his generous donation to the Annual Fund. Dr. Wilkinson first became a Millennium Society Donor in 2011 as a young physician.

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Don’t miss these opportunities to learn more about the Reg-ent registry at the New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center

Attend the Monday morning Reg-ent panel presentation, which will highlight the latest outcome of discussions for expanding Reg-ent’s capabilities through a partnership which provides financial support and resources for revenue and nonrevenue projects, including academic research, publishing, accelerating trials, and FDA projects.

cover_concept

Where Experts and Science Converge: The OTO Experience

The OTO Experience features nearly 1.5 acres of a comprehensive display of products and services from device manufacturers, pharmaceutical companies, surgical instrument suppliers, electronic medical record (EMR) systems, waiting room solutions, financial management firms, and more. All products and services are designed to help you improve patient care.

Texas

Navigating the payment system as a private practitioner

After completing my residency in 1988, I moved to the Dallas metroplex to begin a solo private practice. As residents, we were not given any real training in how to begin and succeed in a private practice. Setting up an office, contracting, billing, scheduling, and collecting were all things we had to learn to do.

Capitol

Advocacy report: State of the states

Following the historic 2018 elections, this year’s state legislative climate promised to be eventful. With a record number of bills introduced, it has proven to be exactly that. Here is a snapshot of the state legislative activity during the first half of 2019:

Delegates

AAO-HNS members assume leadership positions in AMA House of Delegates and Board of Trustees

Academy member, Bruce A. Scott, MD, was elected as the new Speaker of the AMA House of Delegates in June 2019. Previously, he served as Vice Speaker of the House of Delegates and member of the AMA Board of Trustees.

A_Soliman

AAO-HNSF Joint Meeting in the Middle East

The first Joint Meeting of the American Academy of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery Foundation and the Middle East Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery Foundation took place April 26-28, 2019 at the Conrad Hotel in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

SPAO_Picture3

We are better together

In 2018, AAO-HNS/F debuted the “We are One” campaign and brand. According to James C. Denneny III, MD, AAO-HNS/F EVP/CEO, “It will take a concerted effort by all participants in the healthcare delivery system as well as the patients to create a focus on the high-quality care that this country’s citizens deserve.

RhinoWorld

Rhinology recap

Greetings from the American Rhinologic Society. We just completed the RhinoWorld Chicago 2019 meeting during the first week of June, and it was a great success—five days of the best of rhinology and related fields. This meeting brought the world of rhinology to the United States, as the cohosts were the American Rhinologic Society (ARS), the International Rhinologic Society (IRS), and the International Society on Infection and Allergy of the Nose (ISIAN).

Ascent

Five questions to ask your administrator

You have established your practice’s leadership team—physician and administrator. The administrator has the knowledge and skillset to manage the business side of things so that you can focus on what you do best: treating patients.

Matthew L. Bush, MD, PhD, an attending otolaryngologist from the University of Kentucky Otolaryngology Department, travels biannually to Kenya to establish an otologic surgery program at the University of Nairobi. In conjunction with John Ayugi, MBChB, MMED, a staff otolaryngologist at the University of Nairobi, Bush and his team spend their 10-day trips working to educate about otologic disease as well as perform outreach in Kenya’s rural areas.

Otology in Kenya

Since 2011, Matthew L. Bush, MD, PhD, an attending otolaryngologist from the University of Kentucky Otolaryngology Department, has traveled to Kenya biannually to assist John Ayugi, MBChB, MMED, a staff otolaryngologist at the University of Nairobi, in establishing an otologic surgery program at the university.

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Get involved to support women in the specialty

This past Memorial Day weekend, the other members of our department at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, MS, attended the Gulf States Region Otolaryngology Conference in Pointe Clear, AL.

Boisoneau

2019 BOG Candidate Statements

What is the greatest challenge our specialty is currently facing and how would you advocate for action through member engagement?

Bog News

BOG Awards

Receiving the 2019 Board of Governors’ (BOG) Model Society Award is the Virginia Society of Otolaryngology (VSO).

Jerry-Goldstein

In memoriam: Jerome C. Goldstein, MD

A native of upstate New York, Jerome C. Goldstein, MD, led a distinguished career within the house of medicine as a surgical specialist focused on patient care, a trailblazer in the education of physicians, and an administrative leader, setting the course for the future of the otolaryngology-head and neck specialty.

James C. Denneny III, MD, AAO-HNS/F EVP/CEO

Competency in otolaryngology

It’s not too late to register for our Annual Meeting in New Orleans. The 20th anniversary of our last meeting in New Orleans promises to be a spectacular program in a renovated city known for its fine dining and good times for all

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New life and 30-year members

“On behalf of all AAO-HNS members and the Board of Directors, I offer my congratulations to the following members who have earned lifetime status with the Academy and those celebrating 30 years of membership in 2019.”

Aao Hnsf Awards

2019 AAO-HNS election results

The AAO-HNS extends its greatest appreciation to the candidates of the 2019 election for their dedication and willingness to run for office and serve the AAO-HNS and its members.

Albert L. Merati, MD AAO-HNS/F Past President

The universal bond of education

When I consider the incredible diversity of folks at our AAO-HNS/F meetings, I am reminded of a quote from Freya Stark. When reflecting upon the various people she had come across in her travels, she wrote, “love of learning is a pleasant and universal bond, since it deals with what one is and not what one has.” There is a remarkable and appealing meritocracy in our passion for teaching and learning.