Becker's Spine Review

Practice Management 25 While a similar model of care won't work in every situation, pressure from insurers and the federal health plan to coordinate care is bringing multidisciplinary spine specialists together around the country. Electronic medical records and health data analytics allow providers to capture more data than ever before and apply it to value-driven care. us have been very good at collecting clinical intelligence data over the past few decades and we're getting better at business intelligence, but I think within the next five to 10 years we as a field need to become better at predictive intelligence and analytics. As we all become awash in data the next question becomes what to do with it." "When we start to think about value-driven patient centered outcomes, spinal surgery nationwide, in my opinion, is one of the furthest behind and has more catching up to do," says Dr. Slotkin. "A lot of Dr. Slotkin and his team have been working on building spine dashboards drawing from four to five distinct data streams within Geisinger that include operative data sets, billing data, patient demographics, quality and outcomes data. His team is currently using the information to conduct business and clinical intelligence to figure out where they can increase care value in their delivery. "It has been said before that in baseball, one extra hit per week can bring a batter from .275 to .300," says Dr. Slotkin. "We think finding that extra hit per week in the data is how we increase the value proposition. I urge providers to begin to entertain the importance of analytics in their practice." n 10 Key Components of On-Call Contracts for Spine Surgeons By Laura Miller W ayne J. Miller, Esq., a healthcare transaction and regulatory attorney and founding partner of Compliance Law Group in Los Angeles, Calif., discusses 10 essential elements of hospital on-call contracts for spine surgeons. 1. Cover the scope of services. Clearly define the services surgeons will provide with their on-call coverage. If the hospital expects surgeons to take on more than just emergency room coverage, it should be clearly defined in the agreement. "Coverage might entail not just patients in the emergency room, but patients already in the hospital that don't have a physician or spine specialist assigned to them," says Mr. Miller. "Sometimes hospitals want the on-call surgeons to be available for consultation for inpatients or outpatients involving spine surgery." As the on-call specialist, decide whether these additional duties are commitments you are willing and able to make 24/7/365, especially if you have obligations elsewhere. 2. Agree upon coverage expectations. The contract should include expectations for how quickly surgeons will be expected to respond in person or by telephone while on call. In person obligations are usually expressed in travel time, i.e., how far away from the hospital they're allowed to be while on call. Depending on the type of surgery, in-person response obligations could be relatively immediate, typically within 30 minutes or less. Telephone response obligations may be even faster, typically within 10 to15 minutes. "Surgeons must be sure about what the agreement states about in-person availability," says Mr. Miller. "Some agreements may stipulate the surgeon 12th Annual Spine, Orthopedic and Pain ManagementDriven ASC Conference + The Business of Spine June 12-14, 2014 • Chicago 132 Sessions 168 Speakers 63 Physician Leaders 28 CEOs To learn more or register, visit www.beckersasc.com/beckers or call (800) 417-2035 Keynote Speakers: NBA Hall of Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Former Six-Term Governor of Vermont Howard Dean

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