Limiting Outpatient Visits for Medicaid Patients

In their infinite wisdom, the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene in Maryland is proposing as a cost saving measure to limit the number of outpatient visits to ten per year for Medicaid patients.  A few weeks ago, I commented on that some states were limiting the number of inpatient days for Medicaid patients.  Maryland's approach is the same shortsighted planning as the other states.  Applying an arbitrary limit would disrupt the care for some of our most vulnerable citizens.  Individuals suffering from AIDS, mental health conditions, high-risk pregnancies and substance abuse would be harmed by limiting access.  These patients would delay treatment until they needed to be hospitalized or would seek treatment in the ER, generating a higher cost of care in both instances. This approach runs contrary to what hospitals are now trying to achieve by providing care in the most appropriate setting in an attempt to keep patients out of the hospital.  The Maryland Hospital Association has presented a five-point plan to create Medicaid savings that hopefully DHMH will embrace.

Maryland's Competitiveness

Yesterday, I blogged about the O'Malley administration beginning to embrace the business community.  Today, I will expand on areas where the state leads and where we lag related to our competitiveness. This information is based on a presentation to the Maryland Chamber of Commerce last week.  Maryland leads other states in workforce quality, access to capital, quality of life, fiscal stability and economic performance.  Where we lag would include high labor costs,  a greater tax burden, commercial energy costs that are higher than most (Maryland ranks 40th), an unfriendly liability and regulatory environment, 50th in mean travel time to work and 44th in cost of living.  Governor O'Malley's new focus on bringing and retaining businesses in Maryland is both welcomed and critical to our future.

Maryland Now Embracing the Business Community, What's Up With That?

All of a sudden, Governor O'Malley is reaching out to the Maryland Chamber of Commerce, of which I am a board member, to make Maryland more business friendly.  Well, it's about time.  Maryland has slipped to one of the most business unfriendly states in the country under Governor O'Malley due to high taxes and excessive regulations.  So under the "what's up" category, we just learned that yet another company has decided to move 625 jobs out of Maryland to one of the most business friendly States in the US, Virginia.  The Bechtel move comes after Governor O'Malley reached out to Bechtel to keep 1250 jobs in Frederick, Maryland, and was successful ,which is a good thing, but it wasn't enough to keep Bechtel's Global Operations Headquarters here.  Hopefully, the Governor finally gets it that creating and keeping private sector jobs in Maryland is critical to our future and that we can't exist off of our close proximity to DC and federal government jobs exclusively.

NOLA, Part 2

I had the opportunity to see New Orleans by daylight.  Bourbon Street does so much better under the cover of darkness.  During the day, looks especially seedy.  Not very attractive women with piercings and tattoos dressed in a bikini top and a G-string trying to lure you into the too numerous to count Gentlemen's Clubs.  It doesn't matter that you are with your wife, she can come too!  Yeh, right.  Royal Street was a nice surprise with the very many antique shops with some amazing inventory. The food continues to be excellent.  We ate in Arnauld's last evening and what looks like a 1 star restaurant during the day is transformed into a 5 star restaurant at night. 

I mentioned yesterday my first experience with a beignet which is unique to NOLA.  If you haven't had one, it's fried dough drenched in powdered sugar (photo below). 

My visit to New Orleans ends tomorrow morning and I would probably return.  I won't stay at the Marriott in the French Quarter.  Very poor service orientation.  It's hard to imagine that Ritz Carlton with the highest level of service orientation of any hotel chain is owned by Marriott.  I have a suggestion for Bill Marriott, why don't you have the Marriott hotel managers attend the same Service Excellence program that WMHS attended conducted by the Ritz Carlton?

NOLA

I am attending a meeting in New Orleans, LA, through tomorrow.  My first visit to NOLA or Norlands and based on what I had heard, I was dreading it.  I am happy to report, so far so good.  Travel was uneventful since my last trip for a total of ten days, I didn't have luggage for four of those days thanks to the airline industry.  Hotel is fine, food is great and Bourbon Street was better than I expected.  I had my first experience with Beignets, fried dough covered in powdered sugar.  Not bad, but not great for the waistline.  All in all, I would return in the future.

Enterprise Risk Management

Risk management has been around for a very long time in hospitals.  Yesterday at WMHS, we embarked on a new approach, an enterprise risk management initiative.  We will assess every aspect of the health system to determine what and where the risks to the organization may be.  System-wide risk will be assessed starting with a review of the strategic plan and then priorities will be determined in areas of regulatory compliance, patient safety, internal audit and the list goes on.  As we get further into the initiative, I will blog on our progress.

The Grocery Store Tour

Beginning tomorrow, November 2, at Martin's in LaVale at 10 AM, WMHS will begin our free guided tour of one of our local grocery stores.  There are 4 other tours scheduled:   WalMart (11/8 at 2 PM), Food Lion in Cresaptown (11/9 at 2 PM), Food Lion in Frostburg (11/15 at 2 PM) and More for Less on Industrial Blvd (11/17 at 2 PM).  The intent of the tour is to learn how to make healthy choices when shopping for food for you and your family, as well as how to read food labels.  As WMHS takes the lead in our region for improving the health status of our population, the grocery store tour fits perfectly with our goal.  Thanks to Allison Heavner, a registered dietician at WMHS, for taking the lead on this initiative.