2013: The Year in Chapter Activities


Posted: 12/21/2013
Category: Chapter News


Education

With the 2013 year closing and 2014 right around the corner, the Chapter would like to take this opportunity to thankour valuable members for all your support and dedication throughout the year to make our educational endeavors so successful.

We hope you had the opportunity to attend one of our 40 district meetings, Annual Scientific Meeting/Board Review or webinars sponsored by the Chapter. The Chapter sponsored over 21 Local District events, with a participation of over 1150 members and the opportunity to receive over 40 CME credits. The Chapter also hosted a very successful Annual Meeting and Board Certification course over a 3-day period, with 325 members participating. And, to constantly keep our members up to date on the issues, the chapter sponsored 14 webinars, with the opportunity to receive 8 CME credits, with close to 1,000 members participating. We worked closely with the NY State Department of Health to provide you with the most up to date information on the Health Benefit Exchange, I-Stop and the NY Safe Act. We want to especially recognize our Program Directors, Residents and Medical Students, who make the Abstract and Dr’s Dilemma competitions a tremendous success each year.

The Chapter is well on our way to providing you with another year of valuable programs and events in 2014, along with the Chapter Scientific Meeting and Board Review Course in March in Buffalo. We sincerely appreciate our members, and wish you a wonderful holiday season and look forward to an exciting new year.

Advocacy

The Chapter navigated a complex and highly-charged political environment with significant policy changes in 2013 by executing strategy and tactics developed exclusively representing the diversity of our membership.

Here is a brief recap on what we were able to accomplish:

  • Regulatory – Extensive lobbying activity was spent on new mandates including drug abuse and diversion through the ISTOP Act; the implementation of the new health insurance exchange; and implementation of gun control regulations through the SAFE ACT. The NYSDOH has prepared a draft State Health Innovation Plan - a new approach to support the transformation of primary care to a system of proactive management of the population’s needs. The Chapter contributed significantly in the development of this draft document and will continue to monitor the final application in 2014. In addition, we have monitored the State’s application for funding under the federal 1115 Waiver process, as well as the State’s plan to achieve electronic medical record interconnectivity.
     
  • Legislative – Prevented the passage of scope-of-practice expansion without adequate education and training requirements, including the removal of the written collaborative practice agreement and written protocols for nurse practitioners in primary care and the establishment of retail clinics (“Limited Service Clinics”). We successfully advocated for the second layer of coverage for the excess medical liability program to continue at its original funding level for 2013-2014. We also advocated to preserve “prescriber prevails” provisions for Medicaid fee-for-service anti-psychotic prescriptions. The Chapter also supported improvements in fighting sepsis by becoming the first state to require all hospitals to adopt best practices for early identification and treatment.
     
  • Workforce Development – The Chapter is highly engaged in a coalition seeking support for adequate healthcare workforce capacity to meet the future needs of health care reform through partnerships, advocacy, and education. Issues we are working on include: the Doctors Across New York Incentive Programs; Evaluation and Access to Data; Creation of a Statewide Job Bank; Regional Economic Development incentives; and Telemedicine/Telehealth. The Chapter also submitted written testimony regarding the importance of workforce development in the State and successfully advocated to prevent a 10% across the board cuts to workforce programs.
     
  • Lobby Days – In addition, we hosted state and federal lobby days in which members heard briefings on the status of current health legislation and attended meetings with key state and federal officials to advocate on behalf of their patients and the profession.

Quality

There were several key accomplishments in the area of Quality and Patient Safety in 2013 including:

  1. The Near Miss Registry expanded beyond New York State borders and a PSO contract was achieved with National ACP. Expansion in ambulatory care began.
  2. The Chapter offered Quality related webinars, grand rounds and educational programs including:

  • Reducing Readmissions through Effective Transitions in Care
  • The Anatomy of Medical Errors
  • Quality Improvement in Healthcare: Building a Culture of Safety for Physicians and Healthcare Professionals
  • Creating a Culture of Continuous Improvement: Team STEPPS – A Patient Safety Tool
  • Overview of CMS Quality and Incentive Programs for Physicians
  • What Every Physician Needs to Know About the Palliative Care Laws in New York State
  • City Wide – Grand Rounds – High Value Cost Conscious Care: A National Initiative

  1. The Chapter’s Hospitalist Task Force drafted Best Practice Recommendations for Transitions of Care, now in its final stages of review and editing.
  2. The Quality Workgroup at the NYACP Leadership Weekend suggested ways to focus efforts to assist members in quality improvement and the use of best practices and clinical standards including:

  • Advocate for technical support and the development of Web based clear apps for guidelines;
  • Prioritize areas in which guidelines would be most useful to members and provide monthly blog articles for most important aspects of the guidelines;
  • Advocate for the use of standard template for information to come in the same way;
  • Utilize KISS principle - Keep It Simple when presenting quality information to physicians and advocacy efforts to lobby against NYS mandates.
  • To increase colorectal screening rates for their patients in 2014.

These suggestions will continue to guide the Chapter’s assistance to our physician members

 

 

 

 





Contact Us

PO Box 38237 | Albany, NY 12203
518.427.0366
info@nyacp.org

Connect With Us

2024 New York Chapter of the American College of Physicians All Rights Reserved.