Page 1 - March 2017

PRSRT STD
The NATIONAL U.S. Postage
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Launch of DOCTORS’ West Palm Beach, FL
Permit #4595
Coastal DAY:
Wealth Physician
Medical Profiles
Division pages 14-32
page 5

Volume 13 • Issue 9 • $5.00 March 2017
THE REGION’S MONTHLY NEWSPAPER FOR HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS & PHYSICIANS

NATIONAL DOCTORS’ DAY

The Role of Today’s CMO:

Creating a Culture Focused on

Technology and Patient Quality

BY DANIEL CASCIATO
The chief medical officer’s role continues to
evolve. Digital disruption in the healthcare field
over the past decade has driven much of this Jay Juffre
Matt Gracey
change and will continue to do so in the future.
Advances in healthcare technology, and processes
Physicians is altering the healthcare landscape. ImageFIRST
“We're going to see more genetically focused
Should Prepare treatments, so those treatments will be focused Customer
not only on the genetic makeup of a patient, but
on the genetic makeup of that patient's disease,” Advocates Enable
for Increase in says Stanley W. Marks, MD, FACS, Senior Vice
President and Chief Medical Officer for Memorial
Malpractice Healthcare System. “Imaging will also become Healthcare
even more precise and patients will be able to Dr. Stanley W. Marks
Premiums enjoy decision support systems that physicians Clients to Focus
will be able to use that will channel huge vines of information, whether it's the genome
of a patient, the genome of the disease, with other demographics related to the patient,
BY VANESSA ORR on Patients
and target appropriate therapies to patients.”
Physicians who invest in malpractice Continued on page 24 BY VANESSA ORR
insurance in Florida have had the benefit
of buying in a soft market - characterized In a healthcare facility, there are many
by low rates and low claims - but accord- REAL ESTATE duties that fall on staff and administra-
ing to insurance specialist Matt Gracey, tors that have nothing to do with patient
CEO of Danna-Gracey, the leading inde- Florida Medical Center – care. Jay Juffre, ImageFIRST’s Regional
pendent medical malpractice insurance Vice President/National Service Director,
agency in the state, that is about to doesn’t think that those tasks should
change. 'Getting Better Every Day' include managing laundry.
“We are expecting the market to “We believe that there is nothing more
become more difficult for doctors as we BY LOIS THOMSON important than enabling our clients to
transition from the soft market condi- focus on patients and patient care, which
tions that we have now to a harder mar- When Trey Abshier took over the position of they can’t do if they’re counting linens,
ket as a result of the increase in frequen- CEO at Florida Medical Center in January putting deliveries away, filling blanket
cy of claims against Florida doctors, and 2016, he was not unaware of some of the issues warmers or checking on product quali-
the severity of judgements against doc- with the hospital. "I came from a sister hospital ty,” he said. “That’s why we don’t drop
tors in Florida - both are increasing,” he with Tenet, Delray Medical Center," he said, the product and go, leaving the burden
explained. "so I was familiar with the campus. I knew on administrators and staff; instead, our
“The real tell-tale sign is that many, if coming into the role that the look of the build- customer advocates deliver on our
not most medical malpractice insurers in ing was going to be a focus of mine, but I did promise of providing cost-effective solu-
Florida are now at a combined ratio of not know how deep the concerns went; I did tions for greater patient satisfaction.”
100 percent or over; for every one dollar not know how major of a focus it was going to To this end, ImageFIRST’s customer
that they take in, they are spending more be." advocates manage each client’s inventory
than one dollar. That is simply not sus- Though the task might have seemed daunt- so that the healthcare team can focus on
tainable.” ing, Abshier dug right in and has made amaz- the patient. The company’s quality prod-
According to Gracey, the reason that ing strides in slightly more than a year, with ucts include sheets, robes, scrubs,
physicians haven’t seen more price renovations touching both the interior and Trey Abshier gowns, pillowcases and more, and can
increases to date is the sheer number of exterior. The interior, he said, is "going through a complete facelift, which means a even include the same style of sheets that
competitors in the market. “No one complete repainting of the interior of the campus, including all lobbies, hallways, the are carried by the Ritz-Carlton if a client
wants to be the first one to raise prices; cafeteria, patient rooms, nursing stations, ER – everything." Not long after arriving, so requests.
we’re working in a ‘who is going to blink he was also able to open up Specialty Surgical Suites, a renovation of the fifth floor “We deliver a higher quality product,
first’ environment. But insurers are going
Continued on page 10 Continued on page 46 Continued on page 13

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