Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/674245
55 CARE DELIVERY Feds Seek Information on 'Concurrent Surgeries' at 20 Medical Facilities: 7 Things to Know By Kelly Gooch F ederal officials have asked 20 hos- pitals and health systems to outline their practices and policies concern- ing "concurrent surgeries" where a surgeon performs operations on two or more pa- tients simultaneously, according to a Pitts- burgh Post-Gazette report. e request came via a Feb. 16 fact-finding let- ter from the U.S. Senate Finance Committee. Here are seven things to know about the in- quiry. 1. e committee declined to provide the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette with a list of medical facilities receiving the letter. 2. In the letter, signed by committee chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), federal officials do not accuse any organization of wrongdoing, or suggest any hospital is under investigation, according to the re- port. However, the letter does request de- tailed information about the organizations' monitoring and oversight of the practice and, in particular, whether patients are told if they're sharing their surgeon with someone else, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. 3. "We are especially concerned by re- ports that in some cases, steps have been taken to actively conceal this practice from patients," the letter states, according to the report. 4. e letter appears to have been prompted, at least partly, by stories pub- lished in the Boston Globe over the last sev- eral months, which detail disagreements within the medical community about the propriety of physicians performing con- current surgeries, the Pittsburgh Post-Ga- zette reports. 5. e Boston Globe reports include in- stances of medical staff not being able to reach surgeons when an urgent need arose at a second site, as well as instances where a patient was kept under anesthesia for an extended period or suffered complications because the surgeon was not present, ac- cording to the report. 6. CMS does allow surgeons to bill for concurrent surgeries under certain cir- cumstances but requires the attending physician to be "present during all critical and key portions of both operations," the report notes. 7. Additionally, the letter notes that "while concurrent surgery is widely prac- ticed, there are no consistent policies or minimum standards for concurrent sur- gery across the medical field," according to the report. n Camden Coalition Awarded $8.7M for National 'Hot-Spotting' Center By Emily Rappleye T he Camden (N.J.) Coalition of Healthcare Provid- ers — a nonprofit started by Jeffrey Brenner, MD, to help improve heath for the most complex patients — plans to spread its unique approach to patient care by establishing a national center of excellence and housing a scholar-in-residence for research. The center will be funded with $8.7 million in grants from the AARP, The Atlantic Philanthropies and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. "Across the country, innovators are developing new models of healthcare delivery that lower costs and improve care for patients who are overwhelmed by the challenges of navi- gating the complexity of the American healthcare system," Dr. Brenner, executive director of the Camden Coalition, said in a statement. "By developing a professional home for those who are involved in this rapidly growing field, we hope to bring disparate efforts together to improve the research base, share emerging ideas and inspire the next generation of healthcare providers." The Camden Coalition is known for its "hot-spotting" ap- proach to patient care. Using data-driven methodologies, this approach identifies patients who cost hospitals the most and helps address "nonmedical" needs — such as ad- diction, housing, transportation, hunger, mental health and emotional and education support — that contribute to med- ical issues. Dr. Brenner developed this method after finding 20 percent of patients in Camden, N.J., accounted for 80 percent of hospital costs. The early successes of the organization have spurred funding from RWJF, and now AARP and The Atlantic Philanthropies. "We have a generation of work to do in order to address the mismatch between the healthcare system's service delivery model and the needs of patients with complex medical, be- havioral and social needs," Dr. Brenner said in a statement. "With 85 million Baby Boomers in the midst of retiring and state budgets facing ever growing costs from Medicaid, it's crucial that we rethink our care delivery models for the sick- est and most complex patients. We're building a new field and a movement for better care one patient and one com- munity at a time." n