Western Pennsylvania Healthcare News

Covering healthcare news in the Pittsburgh region and beyond.

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Sharon Regional Medical Center and Steward Medical Group Welcomes New Physicians

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Sharon Regional Medical Center and Steward Medical Group are pleased to welcome two physicians to the Steward Health Care System:  Brian Ong, DO, primary care physician and Steven Hand, DO, M.S., orthopedic surgeon.  Both Drs. Ong and Hand are on the medical staff of Sharon Regional Medical Center.

  • Dr. Steven Hand
  • Dr. Brian Ong

“We are thrilled to welcome both Dr. Hand and Dr. Ong to Sharon Regional,” stated Joseph Hugar, president of Sharon Regional Medical Center.    The recruitment of both primary care physicians and specialist to our medical staff continues to be a primary commitment of our organization. As the demand for services from counties surrounding Mercer County continues to increase, we believe this will offer patients more choices and expanded access to available health care providers.”

Dr. Hand has practiced medicine for 17 years primarily in the Lawrence County area.   His areas of interest  include  specialized  training  in  robotic  surgery  used  primarily  for  knee  replacement surgery. This advanced technology will soon be available at Sharon Regional.   Additionally, Dr. Hand  is  trained  in  shoulder,  knee  and  hip  replacement  surgery,  hip  and  knee  replacement revisions, general fracture surgery, sports medicine including rotator cuff, ACL, and meniscus, and hand surgery.

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Medical Technician Wins New Car in IntegraCare Attendance-based Contest

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Magnolias of Chambersburg employee hasn’t missed an overnight shift in years at senior living community

 Lavonda Patterson typically wouldn’t be at Magnolias of Chambersburg on a Wednesday afternoon. But the medical technician made a point to join her co-workers at the senior living community on Jan. 30.

The afternoon visit certainly paid off for Patterson, who works the third shift from 10 p.m. to 6:30 a.m. at Magnolias of Chambersburg. Her name was drawn from more than 35,000 entries of certified perfect attendance during 2018 payroll periods to win a new car as part of IntegraCare’s annual Continued Attendance Rewards (CAR) Program contest.

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IntegraCare’s CAR Program Impacts Lives, Boosts Morale

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Employees have chance to win new car based on perfect attendance

In its fourth year, IntegraCare’s Continued Attendance Rewards (CAR) Program has evolved into one of the most anticipated events of the year for employees in 10 senior living communities located in Pennsylvania and Maryland.

     The CAR Program awards a new car to a dedicated IntegraCare employee based on consistent attendance throughout the previous year. This year’s winner of a new red Ford Eco Sport will be announced on Jan. 30 via IntegraCare’s Facebook Live page. Additionally, three grand prize winners will be named at each of the 10 communities.

     “The CAR Program has generated excitement, boosted morale and helped improve attendance and retention of employees throughout our communities,” said Eric Walker, IntegraCare Executive Director of Sales and Marketing. “This innovative concept was introduced in 2015 and our first winners were announced in January of 2016. Since then, the CAR Program announcement has become a huge event our employees look forward to and watch unfold through the live video on Facebook.”

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Social Media Practices in Healthcare

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Advertising in healthcare has always taken a safe approach. For the most part, you’ll find stock images or the typical narrative of doctors and nurses working to save a life, a smiling patient or a mother nursing a child. The primary reason for these is the fear of being sued for misinformation or having other regulatory bodies come after the healthcare provider. 

However, to expand, these institutions should push to be more creative. The platforms to capitalize on include Facebook and Instagram. Before running an ad, a healthcare marketing strategy ought to be in place. It ought to align with the values that govern the practice as it is what sets your brand apart. Consider the below as you implement your social media advertising campaign.

Consider the demographic

If you’re a children’s hospital, then your focus would be targeting parents. Therefore, know your target market and tailor content toward them. A meditation Toronto studio would attract females perhaps between the ages of 25 and 40. Learn extensively about your primary clients so that you can filter and create highly targeted campaigns. Using this approach makes your efforts worthwhile and productive. It is also a cost-effective approach to advertising. 

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How to Correctly Follow the CMS Mandate – Publishing Charges for Customers

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By Brad Olin

As hospitals begin to adjust to the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) new price transparency mandate, many providers are still concerned about how their patients may perceive their online posted standard charges. 

As everyone is probably aware of by now, as of January 1, 2019, CMS has required all hospitals to post their standard charges online in a machine-readable format. 

Although this mandate was instilled to help create a more patient-centric experience, many providers have focused more on meeting the bare mandate (only posting the list of charges online) rather than going the extra mile by providing a tool for patients to determine their true out-of-pocket costs. 

The key is to present this information simply and clearly to ensure that patients understand the significance of the charge list. Sure, some patients may still have questions about the significance of those standard charges, which is why it’s crucial that patients know who to contact without too much digging around the website. 

In fact, according to a 2018 webinar survey, 57% of the buyer’s journey occurs online before engaging in sales. Pair that with the fact that the average online attention span of customers is only 8 seconds long and now you have a compelling reason to develop an online estimate tool that is engaging, user-friendly, and most importantly, accurate. 

Before a hospital can develop a plan for presenting their standard charges, hospitals need to ensure that they are providing all of the necessary information to the patient. 

In an effort to provide continuous support to the healthcare providers by delivering a patient-centric experience, CMS recently released a FAQ list comprised of items that were added to the CDM list. In this FAQ list, CMS provided further detail on the items that need to be included, such as drugs and biologicals, for each diagnosis-related group (DRG), regardless if a hospital is currently involved in their own state-wide price transparency mandate. If a hospital does not provide all of this information online to the public, they will not be in compliance with the law and are subject to face future penalties.  

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