Western Pennsylvania Healthcare News

Covering healthcare news in the Pittsburgh region and beyond.

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Getting Your Boss on Board with ‘The Best Idea Ever’

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By Kim Bassett

We’ve all been there. That moment when you present your boss with the best idea ever and their response is not what you imagined. You can see your amazing idea crashing and burning right before your eyes, stamped out before it even got off the ground. At this juncture, you must make an important decision. To let “no” mean “no” or to retreat and re-evaluate your next move.

I’m a strong believer that when you want something bad enough, you should not give up at the first roadblock. When someone tells me no, I simply think to myself, “I must not have explained myself well enough.”  I retreat, revise my game plan, and relaunch my idea. [Read more…]

Dr. Sunjay Mannan Joins Genesis Northern Area Family Medicine Practice

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Dr. Sunjay K. Mannan is the newest addition to the Genesis Medical Associates Northern Area Family Medicine practice in McCandless Township.

A graduate of the West Virginia University Medical School, the Wexford resident most recently service as an Assistant Professor at the WVU Emergency Department and as an Advanced Provider for MedExpress Urgent Care in Monroeville.

A member of the American Board of Family Medicine, American Academy of Family Physicians, Pennsylvania Geriatric Society and the American Medical Association, Dr. Mannan completed his residency at Allegheny Health Network’s Forbes Regional Hospital.  He also serves as a physician for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation physical testing program.

At Northern Area Family Medicine, he joins Dr. Warren S. Smith, Dr. Robert H. Porter, Jr., Dr. Kurt M. Heil and their multi-disciplined staff.

Northern Area Family Medicine is one of 11 offices in the Genesis Medical Associates group of primary care physicians, the largest still independent primary care group serving Pittsburgh’s Greater North Hills with offices stretching north from the city of Pittsburgh to Cranberry Township in Butler County.



Are You ‘Phubbing’ Your Patients?

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Smartphone etiquette in the hospital setting

By Kim Bassett

We use our phone for everything-literally everything. We have our life story on our phones.  We store our contacts, emails, texts, music, and pictures on our phones. There are recent studies that reveal the average person looks at their phone up to 150 times each day.  Assuming the average person sleeps 8 hours/day that would mean we look at our phone a little more than 9 times an hour during the remaining 16 hours.  Every 6 minutes, you are looking at your phone. 

You know we have a problem when a word has been coined to describe all of this attention we are giving to our phones…phubbing.  This is the word created to describe the “snubbing” of someone in order to check your phone.  Doesn’t it make you crazy when you walk into a service-type of organization such as a restaurant or clothing store and the person behind the counter is looking at their cell phone and ignoring you?  I hate to say it but it happens in hospitals, too. 

It’s inevitable that as a healthcare worker you will, at times, need to use your phone in the presence of a patient.  We have reference and educational materials on our phones.  Nurses and pharmacists have lists of medications and drug doses on their phones for quick reference.  There are numerous times a day you have to “Google-It,” to access information that can actually be work-related.  The challenge is to not make your patient feel they are being ignored while you access this information.  [Read more…]

Local Physician Serving as Newly Elected President of the Allegheny County Medical Society

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Robert C. Cicco, MD, has been nominated to serve as the 2018 president of the Allegheny County Medical Society (ACMS). He is the 153rd president of the local organization that represents physicians from all specialties and provides leadership and advocacy for patients and physicians. The physician organization has been serving Allegheny County since 1865.

Dr. Cicco is board certified in pediatrics and neonatal-perinatal medicine. He is now retired, but most recently served as associate director of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at West Penn Hospital and was a clinical assistant professor, pediatrics, at Temple University School of Medicine.

A member of ACMS since 1980, Dr. Cicco has served on the Board of Directors and Executive Committee since 2014. He was the ACMS treasurer in 2014, secretary in 2015, vice president in 2016, and president-elect in 2017. At the state level, Dr. Cicco served as a delegate to the Pennsylvania Medical Society in 2013. He was a member of the PAMED Task Force on State of Medicine from 2010 to 2013.  In addition, he has been the recipient of several prestigious awards, including the ACMS Physician Volunteer Award and the PAMED Physician Volunteer Award. In 2012, The Pennsylvania Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics named Dr. Cicco Pediatrician of the Year. [Read more…]

Can Predictive Analytics Have a Moneyball Effect on Healthcare Staffing and Scheduling?

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By Jackie Larson, President, Avantas

Remember the 2003 book (and later film adaptation in 2011) by Michael Lewis that brought the hype of big data analysis to the sentimental game of baseball? For many, Moneyball opened their eyes to the possibilities and valuable insights that were waiting to be unlocked by predictive analytics, sparking an obsession with data that has expanded to many industries.

Healthcare organizations have been the latest to join in the analytics craze. When used smartly, predictive analytics can improve the accuracy of numerous types of forecasts. And when you’re considering patient care outcomes, accurate forecasts are invaluable.

In Lewis’ wildly popular book, the romanticized story of how Oakland A’s General Manager Billy Beane and Assistant General Manager and economist Paul DePodesta built a playoff-bound team by valuing statistics over instinct resonated with the masses. It was an inspiring underdog story that allowed the A’s to compete against big-budget teams by using statistics in a way that had not been done before in the game of baseball. [Read more…]

Medical Practice Organizational Structure

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By Nick Hernandez

The purpose of an organization chart is to depict the skeletal structure of the practice, including the functional relationships between, among, and within the specific components.  An organization chart provides a point of reference and improves the flow and direction of communications.  It allows people to see how they fit in the big picture, increases efficiency, and maintains a balance in the practice.

The development of good structure for organizations has been a concern for managers throughout history.  Medical practices have both structure and process.  The structure refers to the formal organization and the plans, schedules, and procedures that hold it together.  Structure is the instrument by which people formally organize themselves to carry out a task.  Process represents what actually goes on: what is done, how it is done, and the way individuals or groups behave and carry out their perceptions of the assigned tasks.  The structure can be seen as the anatomy of a practice, and the process as the practice’s physiology.

There are six key aspects of an organization chart. [Read more…]

Cole Memorial Welcomes Dr. Sorlien

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Sarah Sorlien, MD, recently joined Anesthesiologists Christan Caramia, MD, and Phong Nguyen, DO, at Cole Memorial’s Surgical Suite.

Dr. Sorlien received a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematical Economics from Brown University in Rhode Island prior to completing her Doctorate in Medicine at the University of Maryland’s School of Medicine. She completed an internship in Internal Medicine there as well. Dr. Sorlien also conducted a residency in Anesthesiology at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

Dr. Sorlien brings over 25 years of medical experience in anesthesiology and pain management. In addition to her recent experience as a Staff Anesthesiologist, Dr. Sorlien was an Assistant Professor at Temple University Hospital, Department of Anesthesiology in Philadelphia.

Dr. Sorlien has co-authored several abstracts and exhibits related to neuro-anesthesia, patient outcomes and anesthesia safety. She is a Diplomate of the American Board of Anesthesiology. [Read more…]

A Prescription for Talent Management Success

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didi-derricoBy Didi D’Errico at Saba, Vice President, Brand Advocacy

How talent management best practices can drive employee satisfaction and better outcomes

The dizzying rate of change in the healthcare industry is causing the need to constantly reskill the workforce to harness new technology advances, keep up with customer expectations, and outpace competitors. Retraining requirements will be so pervasive that 45% of America’s occupations are projected to be obsolete within 20 years, and new jobs requiring new talents will take their place, according to research from Oxford University. No healthcare organization is immune to these changes.

The challenge:  how best to add these new skills? After all, the healthcare industry already faces critical staffing shortages, so there is no way to cover all reskilling needs through external hiring. But well-managed healthcare companies currently have a built-in pool of available talent—their employees. It’s well established that internal mobility drives retention. It’s not only possible to develop new skills with existing employees—it’s the best way to retain, re-engage and inspire them with new challenges and growth opportunities.

The issue is how to build a thoughtful talent management strategy and system that balances hiring new talent with developing existing talent and keeping the workforce engaged enough to fuel innovation and growth. Here’s how three healthcare leaders are rising to the challenge. [Read more…]

Rosann Sgro-Mueser Joins Heyl Family Practice

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Screen Shot 2016-07-21 at 9.34.40 AMRosann Sgro-Mueser has joined Genesis Medical Associates Heyl Family Practice in West View as Practice Director.

She spent the past 18 years as President of RSMMC, LLC a Pennsylvania Professional Business Development Company specializing in strategic business planning, operational infrastructure development, patent portfolio management, EMR/IT system integration, and practice management.   Sgro-Mueser started her career at Carnegie–Mellon University’s Robotics Institute and subsequently served in a variety of positions with the University of Pittsburgh, the Allegheny-Singer Research Institute and the Allegheny Health Education Research Foundation before launching RSMMC, LLC to facilitate project management work with client groups on regional, national and international levels.

She is active in several professional organizations including Medical Group Management Association (MGMA), Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM), and Harvard Business Review (HBR) and serves on the Advisory Committee for Career Training Academy (CTA) and as Vice Chair and Program Chair on the Board of Directors for the Pine-Richland Youth Center (PRYC).

A graduate of the University of Pittsburgh, Sgro-Mueser is also a licensed realtor.  She resides with her family in Pine Township.

The Heyl Family Practice was one of the founding practices in the 11 office Genesis Medical Associates Group., the largest independent primary care practice group serving the Greater North Hills with offices stretching north from the city of Pittsburgh to Cranberry Township in Butler County.

 

Allegheny Health Network’s Thierry Verstraeten, MD, Named President of Pittsburgh Ophthalmology Society 

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Thierry Verstraeten, MD, an ophthalmologist with Allegheny Health Network, is the new president of the Pittsburgh Ophthalmology Society. His peers elected him to a two-year term that runs to 2017.

Dr. Verstraeten is board-certified by the American Board of Ophthalmology and is a member of the American Society of Retina Specialists. He practices at Allegheny Ophthalmic & Orbital Associates, P.C., based at Allegheny General Hospital.

“This is a tremendous honor because it is a selection made by my fellow ophthalmologists in the Pittsburgh area,” Dr. Verstraeten said. “The Pittsburgh Ophthalmology Society is dedicated to promoting the importance of preventive eye care as well as quality medical and surgical care and rehabilitative services for people with ophthalmologic diseases. Additionally, I look forward to leading the Pittsburgh Ophthalmology Society as we work to continually advance the practice of ophthalmology.” [Read more…]