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Volume 13 • Issue 8 • $5.00 February 2017
THE REGION’S MONTHLY NEWSPAPER FOR HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS & PHYSICIANS

Broward Health North's New ER CARDIOLOGY

Offers a 'Better Patient Experience'

BY LOIS THOMSON
A better patient experience –
that was the driving force
behind Broward Health
North’s new Emergency Room.
And a better experience is def-
initely what the patients are
getting.
Robert Bugg, interim CEO
Dr. Shawn Baca of Broward Health North,
explained that the previous ER
simply "did not have the space Robert Bugg Dr. Evan Boyar Harold Mondschein
A Message for the number of patients."
He said that over the past 20 years, the admissions were increasing at an average rate
from the of 1 percent per year. "So we were in a situation where we were having a number of Preparing for
patients in the hallways, and that's not a nice experience for patients, to have to be in
President of the the hallways and be seen by staff and physicians." Medicare's Big
Dr. Evan Boyar, MD, FAAEM, Chairman and Medical Director, ER, agreed that
crowding was the underlying concern in the prior structure, but added that the set-
Palm Beach up also sometimes hampered the flow of care, because the ER was constructed almost Bundled-Payment
like a silo and is now more of an open floor plan. "Now our patients are able to be
County Medical evaluated with their families in their own private room, so it really helps their expe- Expansion in
rience."
The private rooms include a built-in bench where family members can sit. "They're
Society right at the bedside so they can engage in the plan of care for the patient with you. Cardiac Care

Continued on page 31
BY SHAWN BACA, MD, FACR BY DANIEL CASCIATO

As you know, 2017 will be a watershed EDUCATION In December, the Department of
year for medicine. Physicians have been Health & Human Services (HHS) final-
pushed to the edge with dysfunctional ized new models that would shift
EMR’s, ICD-10, programs such as Nova Introduces New Bachelor Medicare payments from quantity to
Meaningful Use, and now MACRA. These quality by creating strong incentives for
programs were designed to “improve the of Science With a Major healthcare systems to deliver better care
quality of care” but most of us feel that it at a lower cost. These models would
only creates more busy work and is the in Public Health reward hospitals that work together with
beginning of more rationed health care. physicians and other providers to avoid
This does not include the “old problems” BY DANIEL CASCIATO complications, prevent hospital readmis-
such as low reimbursement and a broken sions and speed recovery.
malpractice system. The Nova Southeastern University (NSU) Three new significant policies will
For too long, people have equated the College of Osteopathic Medicine’s (COM) affect cardiac care specifically:
practice of medicine with the healthcare Master of Public Health Program recently • New bundled payment models for
delivery system. If you look at the announced the launch of a new academic cur- cardiac care
advances in medicine over the last 10 riculum for a Bachelor of Science with a major • A new model to increase cardiac
years, you can truly say that we live in an in Public Health (BSPH), with an option for an rehabilitation utilization; and
age of miracles. Cancer deaths are down, accelerated seven-year Doctor of Osteopathic • A proposed pathway for physicians
we have new drugs for a once untreatable Medicine (BSPH- DO) degree program. with significant participation in bundled
disease, metastatic melanoma. In my field, According to Kristi Messer, MPH, MSW, payment models to qualify for payment
Rheumatology, we have drugs that truly Director of the BSPH, this program was devel- incentives under the proposed Quality
prevent deformities in rheumatoid arthri- oped to respond to the nationally recognized Payment Program.
tis. Every medical specialty has as similar need to create a public health workforce that is These new payment models will sup-
story. Robotic surgery helps improve competently trained to respond to the chang- port clinicians in providing care to
recovery times and decrease morbidity. ing landscape of healthcare, recent global pub- patients who receive treatment for heart
Doctors and our research partners in lic health issues such as Zika and Ebola, chron- Kristi Messer attacks, heart surgery to bypass blocked
industry have responded to the challenges ic disease management, health promotion and disease prevention, and social and coronary arteries, or cardiac rehabilita-
of our times, and hit it out of the park. The environmental determinants of health, among others. tion following a heart attack or heart sur-
basic problem is that the economy has “Today’s students have an enhanced global perspective of public health given that gery. It also gives clinicians additional
Continued on page 8 Continued on page 40 Continued on page 14

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