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October 3, 2018
PEER SUPPORT
for the MMC Medical Staff
Physician leader: Christine Irish, MD
Confidential • One-on-One • Peer Support
FEATURED ARTICLES
  • Medical Staff Election Results
  • Medical Staff Award Nominations
  • Flu Vaccines for Medical Staff

Scroll down to read these and other new articles and more.
Letter from Joel and Lisa
Happy October! This will be an excellent month for celebrating crisp autumn air, colorful leaves and of course: our medical staff. Please come dine with colleagues at the Medical Staff Dinner on October 17. It will buoy our sense of camaraderie and team spirit as we muster the grit necessary to take on shorter days, colder weather and yes, even flu season.

In this issue, we share an abundance of news, as well as exciting symposia and events in the coming month.


"When you get into a tight space and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hang on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn."
- Harriet Beecher Stowe

This month's quote was submitted by Robyn Ostrander, MD.
Submit a quote to thescope@mmc.org .

Clinical Topics
Medical Staff Elections Results, 2018
By Lisa Almeder, MD, Med Staff President
Thank you to all staff for participating in the elections process. We are pleased to announce our new officers and new MEC members.

Med Staff Award Nominations - Deadline Today, Oct. 3
By Lisa Almeder, MD, Medical Staff President, Christopher Cary, MD, Medical Staff President-Elect, Joel Botler, MD, Chief Medical Officer
There is still time to submit nominations for our annual Medical Staff Awards to be announced at our upco ming Medical Staff Dinner Meeting on Wednesday, October 17. As you may recall, we awarded the inaugural Marjorie A. Boyd, MD Award in 2015, the inaugural George L. "Bud" Higgins III, MD award in 2016 and the inaugural Michael G. Tranfaglia, PA-C award last year in 2017.

FY19 Annual Implementation Plan
By Joel Botler, MD, CMO, and Lisa Almeder, MD, Medical Staff President
As we begin a new fiscal year, we're excited to share with you Maine Medical Center’s new strategic roadmap, our 2019 Annual Implementation Plan (AIP), a tool to guide us in reaching our mission.

The AIP is our annual plan that provides the framework and details of our collective goals. It’s important every colleague at MMC understands these goals and works with their teams to help achieve them.

Take Survey: Provider EHR User Experience Survey
MaineHealth is committed to improving the EHR provider experience. This year, we have joined the Arch Collaborative, a national benchmarking survey aimed at improving EHR satisfaction. This survey will allow us to benchmark our experience scores against more than 100 health care systems nationwide. This survey will provide actionable information we need to direct and prioritize IT efforts for FY19. Provider participation in this survey is integral to our optimization efforts, and we look forward to your feedback. Survey closes October 23.
 
 
  • 30 questions
  • For providers and APPs
  • Takes ~10 minutes to complete
  • Must be completed in one sitting

Survey results will be shared starting in November.
Achoo! Avoid the Flu: This Year’s Vaccines and Recommendations
By August J. Valenti, MD, FACP, FIDSA, FSHEA, Professor of Medicine, Tufts University School of Medicine; Hospital Epidemiologist, Director, Special Infectious Diseases Unit, and Interim Medical Director, Employee Health Unit, Maine Medical Center
The 2018 - 2019 influenza season is upon us. There has been some recent influenza activity in the Portland area (H1N1). The CDC is urging that everyone over the age of six months be vaccinated against influenza before the end of October. This is especially important for high-risk groups and those who care for them.

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Flu Vaccines for Medical Staff
Maine Medical Center will be offering the following vaccines: Quadrivalent Influenza Vaccine and High Dose Trivalent Influenza Vaccine (for those 65 and over). Vaccinations for Medical Staff (anyone with an MMC badge) are free of charge and will be offered through Flu Clinics starting Tuesday, October 2. Vaccines are also offered on units and at practices by embedded staff.

Improving Diagnosis
By Robert Trowbridge, MD
Providing patients with an accurate and timely diagnosis is central to the provision of quality health care. Without the correct diagnosis, it is difficult, if not impossible to determine the best treatment or the prognosis for return to health. Despite the importance of diagnosis, we don’t have a safe and reliable diagnostic system.

Handoff Communication
By Mark Parker, MD, VP, Quality and Safety
To support the effort to reach the FY19 AIP handoff communication goal, a steering committee composed of institutional leaders from Medical Executive Committee, quality and safety, nursing, advanced practice providers, rehabilitation medicine and medical education has convened. Process mapping and gap analysis will guide smaller workgroups in these areas to navigate academic recommendations for best practice and regulatory requirements with a goal of establishing and maintaining consistent standardized handoffs appropriate to each profession or discipline.

Maine Medical Center Cancer Institute Outcomes Report Published
By The Oncology Service Line
Maine Medical Center Cancer Institute’s 2018 Outcomes Report highlights the data tracked to measure our work treating patients with five of the most prevalent cancers in Maine: breast, gynecological, prostate, lung, and colon and rectal. The report, recently published and mailed to primary care physicians and other referring providers in the MaineHealth footprint, shares the outcomes that meet or exceed national measures, patient care quality standards, components of quality-driven care and information that highlights the different tumor sites.

Join Project ECHO for Heart Failure Discussion and Case Reviews
By Doug Sawyer, MD, Chief of Cardiac Services, and Esther Shao, MD
The care of heart failure patients can be challenging. To help you address specific
challenges and to build your expertise in heart failure care, the MaineHealth Cardiovascular Service Line is rolling out a new education and consultation forum.

SeHR Shorts
By Donna Morong, R.N., Manager of Clinical Informatics – Medical Affairs
  • SeHR Educational Opportunities
  • Cardiology Compendium
  • Nephrology Overview
  • SeHR Tips

Renal Pearls: Five Things Our Nephrologists Want You to Know
By Ana P. Rossi, MD, MPH, Associate Medical Director, Maine Transplant Program, Clinical Assistant Professor, TUSM; Eric N. Taylor, MD, MSc, FASN, Division of Nephrology and Transplantation, Maine Medical Center, Associate Professor of Medicine, TUSM; James Wasserman, MD, Medical Director, Southern Maine Dialysis Center, Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine, TUSM; Stuart Abramson, MD, MPH, Director, Center for Dialysis and Hemotherapeutics, Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine, TUSM; John P Vella MD, FRCP, FACP, FASN, FAST, Director of Nephrology & Transplantation, Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine, TUSM; Robert F. Zimmerman, MD, Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine, TUSM; Michael F. Akom, MD, Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine, TUSM
New Dialysis Transitional Care Unit Aims to Reduce LOS for AKI - Most studies of patients with Acute Kidney Injury (AKI) requiring dialysis show that length of stay (LOS) can increase by 4 – 7 days and that the cost is increased by $10 – 15,000 as compared to similar patients without AKI.

Innovation Cohort Accepting Applications
By Jennifer Monti, MD, Program Director, Innovation Cohort
This is a reminder that application to the Innovation Cohort are due by Wednesday, October 3. If you have an idea for a new product, service, process or translational research that can change how we care for people, consider submitting an idea to the program.

Coaching Announcement
By Bob Bing-You, MD, VP, Medical Educatio
As part of the new TUSM Curriculum, a Coaching Program will be launched to establish longitudinal faculty member-student relationships throughout the 4-year medical school training program. The goal is to assist and enhance each student’s personal, professional and academic development towards becoming a physician. We are looking to recruit a pool of Coaches for TUSM class of 2023 students that will begin in late-July to early August 2019.

Advanced Practice Grand Rounds
By Debbie Hoch, APRN-ACNP
Advanced Practice Grand Rounds, hosted by the Advanced Practice Council and supported by the Medical Executive Committee, were well attended on Sept. 21. Our very own Melissa Blier, MS, PA-C, presented on the surgical perspective of pleural effusions and Christopher W. Bates-Withers, MS, PA-C, presented on cardiotoxicology.

Care Team Well Being
MMC Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee
By Elisabeth Wilson, MD, MPH, MS-HPEd, Chair, Department of Family Medicine

The purpose of the MMC Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Committee is to assist in the development of a DEI structure and implementation plan that is transparent about the overlap between diversity and excellence in patient care, workforce recruitment and retention, research and medical education at an integrated institutional level.

Spiritual Care Week Special Events, Oct. 22 - 26

  • Mindfulness
  • Mass and Communion
  • Blessing of the Hands
  • Laughter and Peace in the Home
  • Meditation and Poetry

Brown Bag Series for Med Staff, Residents and Fellows
Publications, Achievements and Recognition
Faculty Promotions and Appointments
Events and Important Dates
Compassionate Interactions Workshop
Patient Experience has announced new sessions of the Compassionate Interaction Workshops for October, November, and December. These workshops are open to all employees.

Planetree’s Compassionate Interactions Workshop is a multi-module curriculum designed to equip healthcare staff with a deeper understanding of the importance of compassion as a driver of high-quality, high-value health care.

Violence, Guns and the Health Environment

Wednesday, Oct. 17
7:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Dana Center, 22 Bramhall St., Portland
Registration Fee: $50, includes breakfast and lunch
Keynote Speaker: David Hemenway, PhD, Director, Harvard Injury Control Research Center

Medical Staff Dinners

Wednesday, October 17
5:30 p.m.
Dana Center
We Want Your Article Submissions
Your participation is essential to making The Scope a dynamic and sustainable publication. Please submit articles of 250-300 words to thescope@mmc.org . Include practitioner’s byline with title, credentials and appropriate contact for further information. We publish on the first Wednesday of each month, all submissions are due one week prior to publication. Learn more.

Medical Staff Value, Mission and Vision Statements
Value Statement
The Medical Staff of Maine Medical Center values both individuality and collaboration. We will continually pursue higher value health care. We embrace a culture of curiosity and life-long learning. We are partners with Maine Medical Center, and we mirror its values of compassion, service, integrity, respect, and stewardship.
 
Mission Statement
The Mission of the Medical Staff of Maine Medical Center is to provide affordable, high-quality health care to our community. We teach future health care providers and develop innovative ways to improve the health of our community. In partnership with the Medical Center, we proudly accept our responsibility as one of Maine’s leaders in patient care, education, and research.
 
Vision Statement
The Medical Staff of Maine Medical Center will be the driving force within Maine Medical Center leading the way to making Maine the healthiest state in the nation.