Louisiana Medical News October 2009 : Page 1

Your Primary Source for Professional Healthcare News october 2009 / $5 South LouiSiana Edition On Rounds Physician Spotlight LONG-TERM CARE Nursing Homes Face Massive cuts A By TED GRIGGS dd nursing homes to the ever-growing list of opponents of HR 3200, the House version of the health reform package. Joe Donchess, ex- Drs. Cris Mandry and Sarah d’Autremont Wedded more than 11 years, Drs. Cris Mandry and Sarah d’Autremont have battled through the trenches together ... page 3 Myths About Hospice Care – Debunked! It’s not just lay peo- ple who have mis- conceptions about hospice; plenty of doctors do, too. When dealing with end of life situations, some physicians jump into savior mode, rather than quality of life mode ... page 5 Informed Consent If you’re a physician, think back to that first time you sat down with a patient to obtain his or her informed consent. Did you know what to say — and how to say it? According to Kevin Pho, MD, a New Hampshire in- ternist and author of the prolific and popular medical Internet blog Kev- inMD.com, “most medical students don’t take classes on how to discuss informed consent ... page 9 ecutive director of the Loui- siana Nursing Home Associa- tion, said the bill would cut $32 billion from Medicare’s nursing home program. “That coupled with the $12 billion administrative cut (over 10 years) would mean a 9.5 percent cut to Medicare skilled nursing facilities,” Donchess said. “That means some of our frontline staff would likely be laid off.” An analysis by the Ameri- can Health Care Association, which represents nursing homes, found that Louisiana skilled nursing facilities face total cuts of Continued on page 8 SENIOR HEALTH Patient coaches Improve Quality, cut costs By TED GRIGGS T he early returns of a pilot project designed to reduce unneces- sary hospitalizations among seniors have been no less than remarkable, according to Louisiana Health Care Review of- ficials, the leaders of the project. So far, participants in the Care Transitions Collaborative have slashed their readmission rates among the elderly from 18 percent to 4 percent, said Laurie Robinson, LHCR quality improvement director and a registered nurse. The five hospitals participating in the three-year, $2.1 million pilot project are Baton Rouge General Medical Center, Continued on page 6 Read Louisiana Medical News online at www.louisianamedicalnews.com PRSRT STD U.S. POSTAGE PAID LAFAYETTE, LA PERMIT NO.338

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