Sensing Savvy

“With the passing of Professor Francis Fontan on the 14th of January 2018, the community of congenital heart professionals lost one of its greatest leaders. He was a surgical innovator, a man of science, and a European visionary.”1 

End stage renal disease is increasing by five percent per year in the United States, and in 2014 over 100,000 people began treatment for ESRD. As the amount of ESRD patients increase, so does the need for dialysis clinics to help treat them. 

Attracting these new ESRD patients to your dialysis clinic and retaining the ones you have has several benefits. Lower patient turnover has been associated with increased profitability, happier staff and lowered risk of patient treatment errors.

But attracting and retaining patients is often easier said than done. Here are a few tips for attracting and retaining patients to your dialysis center.

Though they attended the same medical schools and underwent the same training as their male counterparts, female physicians still earn about 27 percent less than male physicians, according to a study from the medical networking site Doximity. Specialities with the largest wage gap included occupational medicine, hematology and urology, while pediatric cardiology and geriatrics had the smallest wage gap. 

American Renal Associates Reports 10 Percent Increase in Operating Revenues in Q1 

Leadership is crucial to success in the OR. Successful surgeons are often marked by their technical skill, knowledge, and diagnostic judgment; but the non-technical skills of good leaders are just as important. Failed communication often results in patient harm and financial risk for hospitals. After reviewing over 23,000 malpractice lawsuits, Circo Strategies found that over 7,000 patient harm cases were due to miscommunication. These cases cost the healthcare system an estimated $1.7 billion. 

An increase in staffing shortages has put the demand for locum tenens on the rise. Healthcare facilities need extra members to support their current staff or fill in for a physician on leave.

Becoming a locum tenens is a great option for a physician seeking more control over their schedule, pay rates, and vacation time. But many practitioners are on the fence due to pervasive myths about the locum tenens’ lifestyle. Below, we’ve debunked six myths to help you decide if a locum assignment is right for you. 

It sadly comes as no surprise that out of approximately 160,000 surgeons in the US, only 19% are female. Surgery has long been the domain of male physicians, with the first female surgeon in Britain entering the modern field in the early 1800s (and, even then, disguised as a man). Since then, the increase has been infinitesimally slow, with the number only hitting 14% in 2001. 

Intracranial and extracranial flowprobes designed to reduce risk of intraoperative and postoperative stroke, reduce time in operating room.

 Women surgeons are at a disadvantage when it comes to developing their leadership potential. A 2010 Academic Medicine study reported that even though female students make up almost half of medical school classes, fewer female medical students see themselves as leaders. According to a Harvard Business Review study, women are 1.4 times more likely to receive subjective feedback as opposed to objective critique.

Bill restricting third-party premium payment for patients with ESRD wins California Senate committee approval

The California Senate Committee on Health recently approved the California SB 1156 bill, sponsored by Sen. Connie Leyva. SB 1156 prevents third-party organizations, such as the American Kidney Fund, from helping patients on dialysis pay for more expensive, commercial health plan premiums.