FEBRUARY 2018
-COMING UP THIS MONTHThursday, February 8 12:00 pm Samantha Huebner presents “Oh My Aching Joints” at Valley Shore YMCA
ON THE ROAD: THE GRAHAM SESSIONS
I recently had the good fortune of attending the 11th Annual Graham Sessions in San Diego, CA. I have written about these meetings in the past, but as a refresher, the Graham Sessions are an open forum “think tank” approach to identifying and discussing the challenges and opportunities PT faces as a profession. Topics are often introduced and discussed with a panel of three presenters taking positions on a “big picture topic.” The facilitator of the sessions asks that the presenters take opposing viewpoints; controversial opinions are encouraged. Once the topic has been framed, an open mic process begins. Anyone invited to attend has three minutes to advance, dispute, clarify, or oppose anything that has been said. The meetings are capped at 150 APTA members from across the country, with the goal of using the two days to encourage “cutting edge and controversial” dialogue and debate. “Collaboration,” a topic that has made the agenda in the past, surfaced again this year, though it looked a lot different than it did five or six years ago. Not long ago the idea of collaborating with physician groups, hospitals and healthcare systems was viewed as negative by the majority. This year the tone of the conversation was very different.
Monday, February 12 12:15 pm Melissa Lembo presents “Oh My Aching Joints” at Branford YMCA Wednesday, February 14 Happy Valentine’s Day! Sunday, February 25 10:00 am - 3:30 pm Plainville and Southington clinics at Healthy Family FunFest
The shifting attitudes appear to be driven by three factors: • Payment changes that appear to be moving to performance-based criteria, shared risk, etc. • The consolidation of healthcare providers for “efficiency and savings” • The consumer (employers and individuals) wanting to understand and participate in the healthcare process The next several years will be interesting when it comes to collaboration. As the largest private practice in Connecticut, PTSMC is well positioned to evaluate the opportunities and risks associated with strategic relationships. Our continued commitment to unmatched experiences, clinical excellence and lifelong relationships is what has created our reputation and strength in the communities we serve. We are in a good place and I am confident the year ahead will be a great one!
Several people spoke in the open forum and confessed to everything from seeking hospital partnerships to having created physician joint ventures. Contracting to provide services to a larger group, hospital or health system moved from the shadows of ridicule to the bright lights of Thanks for all you do, opportunity!
StriveHub Fab 5 Our patients love us!
Always a lovely experience with the PT staff and a thorough education on how I need to exercise to improve my back and neck pain. - Southbury patient Knowledgeable and effective and great people! Love them! - Watertown patient Jason and the crew really know their stuff, and it shows they stay up on their knowledge, share best practices and ensure they’re providing the best possible care with the right balance of being aggressive vs. conservative. Other institutions are just too conservative, and as a knowledgeable customer, I can tell a provider hasn’t mastered their subject. Best of all, the 1-on-1 customer experience and consultative approach is awesome. I truly love going here, and I would only trust my short and long term rehabilitation care to this team. - Windsor patient Great staff. Especially love Meagan and Emma. I had to reschedule appointments and the staff member who helped me was kind, too. - Westbrook patient Love the feeling the people give. It’s a great place to feel better with all of the experience from the front to the back. Love this place!! - Plainville patient
And the EMR is...
After four years of PTSMC being a divided EMR state, the organization is making the BOLD move to one platform for our EMR (Electronic Medical Records). All PTSMC clinics will be on WebPT! PTSMC first entered the world of EMR with WebPT back in June of 2011. For those around in 2013-2014 (who have not blocked this time from their memory) we briefly began a transition of all clinics to R4 from WebPT. This was a very dark time at PTSMC for documentation. Some reversed their course back to WebPT while others stayed with R4. We are thrilled to announce our move to WebPT for scheduling and documentation for three major reasons: 1. One organization, one system! The opportunity to have everyone on the same platform creates consistency through the organization for many things; training, operational processes and auditing just to name a few. 2. Healthcare is moving in an accelerated direction toward value based care. It is imperative that PTSMC participate in a formal process to measure our treatment so that we can know and show how awesome we are as clinicians and to identify where perhaps we need to improve in our treatment methods.
This information is increasingly valuable for contracting discussions with insurance companies, collaboration discussions with hospital networks and ACO’s and for marketing purposes with our referral sources. WebPT has built into its EMR this outcomes tracking tool. 3. While BMS has been an excellent business partner on the billing side, WebPT is clearly a more progressive company with an eye on utilizing the latest technology and features to support physical therapy’s place in the healthcare continuum. WebPT is perceived as an EMR for the PT by the PT. It is easy to document in, easy on the eyes, has dictation capabilities, has recently partnered with our partner StriveLabs and they have a very proactive development strategy of getting as paperless as possible, which aligns with PTSMC’s strategy. In February, East Hampton, Naugatuck, Southbury, Southington and Wallingford will be transitioning. Guilford will transition in March. We know from past experience that transition of an EMR system is not always seamless or smooth. Thanks in advance to the staff in these clinics for the extra work and attention to detail it will take to successfully complete this awesome change.