Quality Care/Best Practices
The number one priority of the Washington State Medical Association (WSMA) is to make Washington a better place to practice medicine and to receive care. Improving the quality of care in our state is of utmost important to the WSMA and our physician members.
WSMA Preceptor and Other News
WSMA Preceptor
Our 4-page quarterly publication on news and comment, informing physicians and practice managers about emerging performance, costs and quality measurements that are becoming integral to health care.
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Cultural Competency In Health Services & Care
The Washington State Department of Health is pleased to announce a new resource to help health care providers serving diverse populations of patients. The Cultural Competency in Health Services and Care – A Guide for Health Care Providers is a tool in that effort. This guide is intended to increase the knowledge, understanding, and skills of those who provide health care in cross-cultural situations.
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WSMA Collaborates to Form Clinical Performance Improvement Network
The Washington State Medical Association has joined with the Puget Sound Health Alliance and the Washington Academy of Family Physicians to create the Clinical Performance Improvement Network (CPIN), an educational program designed to assist physician practices focus efforts on quality improvement. The collaborative effort will be led by Lance Heineccius, WSMA's director of performance improvement and lead technical staff for the newly revised WSMA Foundation for Health Care Improvement.
Read more...
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Helpful Search Engines
Epocrates Drug Search Tool
Discounted all-in-one mobile guide to drugs, diseases, and diagnostics.
WSMA members can now receive 20% off all Epocrates paid products. For a flyer on Epocrates products click here.
mdconsult.com
MD Consult brings leading medical resources together into one integrated online service to help you efficiently find answers to pressing clinical questions and make better treatment decisions. MD Consult has been adopted by more than 90% of North American medical schools and is used in over 1,700 healthcare organizations worldwide. With over a quarter million physician and professional users, MD Consult is the most respected online clinical information service.
Use of MD Consult requires paid subscription.
medworm.com
MedWorm is a medical RSS feed provider as well as a search engine built on data collected from RSS feeds. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication and it is a technology used to simply publish and gather details of the very latest information on the internet.
MedWorm collects updates from over 5500 authoritative data sources (growing each day) via RSS feeds. From the data collected, MedWorm provides new outgoing RSS feeds on various medical categories that you can subscribe to, via the free MedWorm online service, or another RSS reader of your choice, such as Bloglines, Newsgator, Google Reader or FeedDemon.
Subscribing to MedWorm is free.
pogofrog.com
PogoFrog.com is a medical search engine for physicians. PogoFrog.com "jumps over the layman-focused clutter on the internet to find only credible medical information for physicians."
Subscribing to PogoFrog.com is free.
uptodate.com
UpToDate is an evidence based, peer reviewed information resource - available via the Web, desktop, and PDA. The UpToDate community includes our faculty of more than 3,800 leading physicians, peer reviewers, and editors and nearly 320,000 users. Our faculty writes topic reviews that include a synthesis of the literature, the latest evidence, and specific recommendations for patient care. Our users provide feedback to the editorial group. This community's combined efforts result in the most trusted, unbiased medical information available.
Use of UpToDate requires paid subscription.
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Guidelines
Clinical Laboratory Advisory Council (CLAC): Practice Guidelines
Practice guidelines as provided by Washington State Clinical Laboratory Advisory Council.
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WSM-ERF Guidelines
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Lasers in Skin Care Treatment
Rules pertaining to the use of laser, light, radiofrequency and plasma devices, adopted by the Washington State Medical Quality Assurance Commission.
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Medical Records Retention Guidelines
Guidelines on Retention of Medical Records when Closing a Practice from the Department of Health. [PDF]
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Medical Treatment Guidelines
The Department of Labor and Industries published Medical Treatment Guidelines, which cover 21 conditions, as an educational tool for medical providers treating injured workers.
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Office-Based Anesthesia Guidelines
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Pain Management Guidelines
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The SCOAP Surgical Checklist Coalition
WSMA is an active member of the SCOAP Surgical Checklist Coalition which is working to place a SCOAP Surgical Checklist in every OR across Washington State by the end of 2009. This initiative will ensure that the necessary steps for safe surgery are consistently conducted thus reducing the risk of unnecessary surgical complications. The SCOAP Surgical Checklist promotes better communication and supports the use of best practices in the OR. The checklist is easy to use and takes minimal time to perform - time well spent in the interest of patient safety. See an informational video on the SCOAP Surgical Checklist and a demonstration of how to use it in the OR.
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Self-Prescribing or Treatment of Family Members
Self-Treatment or Treatment of Immediate Family Members from the Department of Health. [PDF]
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Resources
Child Profile
WSMA encourages all member physicians providing childhood immunization services to fully utilize the CHILD Profile system by enrolling all of their pediatric patients in this electronic immunizations registry and maintaining accurate, up-to-date immunization profiles on these patients.
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Clinical Performance Improvement Network (CPIN)
The Washington State Medical Association has joined with the Puget Sound Health Alliance and the Washington Academy of Family Physicians to create the Clinical Performance Improvement Network (CPIN), an educational program designed to assist physician practices focus efforts on quality improvement. The collaborative effort will be led by Lance Heineccius, WSMA's director of performance improvement and lead technical staff for the newly revised WSMA Foundation for Health Care Improvement.
The goal for CPIN is to offer opportunities for medical practices to collaborate with one another, sharing best practices, proven innovations, tools, and resources to stimulate accelerated and efficient implementation into practice settings. The initial target audience will be medium and small-sized primary care practices in the Puget Sound region, with a focus on evidence-based care, especially for chronic conditions and preventive services. The program plans to expand statewide in 2011.
CPIN will offer learning network events bimonthly or quarterly, either in person or via web conferences. The sessions will be scheduled for early morning, over the lunch hour, or at other times to accommodate individuals with busy practice schedules. Event duration will range from 60-90 minutes, with the general format being formal presentations on a range of topics from local or national provider organizations, with ample time reserved for discussion and networking (for in-person meetings). CME credit will be available.
The initial CPIN learning session will be held in Tacoma on the morning of September 24, 2010, in conjunction with the WSMA annual meeting which begins later that day. The September 24 CPIN session begins at 7:30 AM at the Marriott in Tacoma (1515 Commerce Street) and will last 90 minutes. The session will feature Ed Walker, MD, MHA, founding director of the UW Healthcare Leadership Development Alliance, speaking on the importance of physician leadership and engagement in quality improvement efforts at the practice level and Susanne Quistgaard, MD, family medicine physician at Edmonds Family Medicine Clinic, who will speak on using disease registries to improve outcomes by tracking patients with chronic conditions over time. AMA Category 1 CME credit is available at no cost, and AAFP Preferred CME credit is pending. For additional information, please contact Lance Heineccius at Lance@wsma.org or call (206) 956-3657.
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Cultural Competency In Health Services & Care
The Washington State Department of Health is pleased to announce a new resource to help health care providers serving diverse populations of patients.
A law passed in 2006 requiring all health care providers licensed by the department to receive multicultural health awareness education and training.
The Cultural Competency in Health Services and Care – A Guide for Health Care Providers is a tool in that effort. This guide is intended to increase the knowledge, understanding, and skills of those who provide health care in cross-cultural situations.
Download the guide. [PDF]
We hope it will broaden your awareness of health disparities, provide a better understanding of why cultural competency is important, and illustrate some of the resources available to you.
There are several online resources that offer continuing education credits. There are also resources with important information and statistics on the populations you serve.
For questions about this project, please contact Kris Reichl at Kristin.reichl@doh.wa.gov or (360) 236-4985.
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Death With Dignity Act Information
The Department of Health has developed a website for Death with Dignity Act information. The website address is www.doh.wa.gov/dwda.
The site contains links to:
Please note the Pharmacy Dispensing Record form [PDF] has been updated to include the patient's address, and all forms have a new mailing address P.O. Box 47856.
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Free Medical Books
Over the next few years, many important medical textbooks will be available online, free and in full-text.
More information on these free resources.
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Medical Marijuana
In November 1998, Washington voters passed Initiative 692 regarding the use of marijuana for certain terminal or debilitating conditions. The initiative became law on December 3, 1998. SB 5798, passed in March, 2010, added additional health care professionals who may authorize medical marijuana, specified what criteria must be met for tamper resistant paper under the statute, and made several other changes to the applicable statutes, including no longer allowing a copy of a signed authorization or a copy of the patient's medical record to substitute for the original signed authorization.
Frequently asked questions about the law, including a downloadable Documentation of Health Care Professional’s Authorization to Engage in the Medical Use of Marijuana in Washington State.
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Physicians Desk Reference - MobilePDR (TM) - free download
Clinicians with a Palm Pilot, Compaq IPAQ or other PDA can now download "mobilePDR" for free, gaining instant access to concise drug information for the 1,500 most prescribed drugs.
Learn more.
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STD Partner Treatment
Policy regarding Treating Partners of Patients with Sexually Transmitted Chlamydia and Gonorrhea, adopted by the Washington State Medical Quality Assurance Commission.
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WSMA Preceptor
Read WSMA Preceptor which is our 4-page quarterly publication on news and comment. Our goal with Preceptor is to better inform physicians and practice managers about the emerging performance, costs and quality measurements that are becoming integral to health care. This link is password-protected.
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