Greetings colleagues and salutations!
I hope that this newsletter finds you and your loved ones safe and sound,
as we work through the COVID-19 event, the likes of which most of us have
never experienced. As usual, I have been impressed with the collegiality
of the medical staff and the willingness to adapt to a very fluid situation.
I am concerned that as this pandemic continues that our patience may wear
thin, but it is then that we will have to rely on our training and our
revalidation of the Hippocratic Oath:
I will remember that there is art to medicine as well as science, and that
warmth, sympathy, and understanding may outweigh the surgeon's knife
or the chemist's drug.
Continue to put the patient first while maintaining your own health and
safety, in order to continue helping others in need.
Despite the network no longer able to meet in large committees and discussion
groups, the work of the Mary Washington Health Alliance soldiers on at
a very steady pace. Our committees have been very successful in maintaining
their schedules and our Annual Meeting will be held electronically with
the help of Microsoft Teams. You will all be receiving an invitation to
join soon, so please take the time to set up the application prior to
meeting time to optimize your time.
Our Advisory Council has been carefully analyzing our performance in NGACO
(Next Generation Accountable Care Organization) from 2019 and strategizing
to consider our role as we advance to the next iteration of APM (Alternative
Payment Model) to the benefit of our physicians who are scheduled to receive
a 5% bonus for their Medicare billings, potentially early this Fall. Processing
of Green Sheets continues, incenting our primary care colleagues to complete
their AWV’s (Annual Wellness Visits) which not only benefit our
quality reporting but also the patients themselves, identifying gaps in
their care and potential safety concerns that could contribute to poorer
health. Our Clinical Care Coordinators, working diligently with our individual
high risk and rising risk patients, oftentimes covertly providing much
needed support to our patients that we, as clinicians, are unaware of,
but blessed to have. Our PCP Forums have been enthusiastically attended
and as soon as the COVID starts to hibernate, we hope to resume our friendly
educational gatherings. Our Quality Committee recently received a report
from Thomas Magrino, Director of Population Health Operations, regarding
the progress of our GPRO reporting, a major benefit to all our members,
who otherwise would have to report individually. EPIC Connect remains
a focus of our IT Committee, working with several practices to upgrade
their EMR systems with minimal cost to them. Membership & Operations
Committee has been resurrected under the leadership of Dr. Ken McDowell,
who has also penned a more detailed article in this newsletter re: finalization
of our annual distribution.
Whew! Just writing about all the activity is exhausting. We plan to go
over all of this in more detail at our Annual Meeting, April 7th and hope all of you will join in if you can.
Until then, in the famous words of Michael Conrad of Hill Street Blues:
“Let’s be careful out there” (No comments needed. I know
I am showing my age.)