TEL. New: the cleaning company should become a member of your practice team
Media Contact: Barbara Fornasiero, EAFocus Communications; 248.260.8466; [email protected]
Rochester, Mich. –May 27, 2020 –MedNetOne Health Solutions (MedNetOne), a health care management organization offering infrastructure, clinical and technology services to nearly 1,00 private practice physicians and other independent care providers, including behavioral health specialists, has created its best practices playbook with foundational elements not only from traditional sources like the American Medical Association and the Centers for Disease Control, but also from…the auto industry?
MedNetOne CEO Ewa Matuszewski has been in the trenches with her primary care practice members as they struggle with financial issues, staff layoffs, insufficient personal protection equipment (PPE) and other COVID-19 induced threats to a practice’s viability. Prior to the recent availability of guidance from national and state medical agencies and professional medical associations, Matuszewski decided she needed to get started on her own back-to-work manual. The first stop for the social media savvy CEO, who never hesitates to reach out to others she “meets’ via Twitter and LinkedIn, was a message to Gary Johnson, Chief Manufacturing and Labor Affairs Officer at Ford Motor Company.
“I don’t know Mr. Johnson, but I responded to a post he made on LinkedIn to inquire about his willingness to share Ford’s safety playbook with any industry,” Matuszewski said. “He gave me permission and I incorporated some of the Ford Playbook foundational approach into MedNetOne’s primary care practice playbook. To pay it forward, our playbook is now available online for use by other physician organizations and the healthcare community at large.”
Beyond handwashing and wearing the appropriate PPE, the MedNetOne playbook includes:
- Checklist for re-opening a medical practice
- Training requirements for all the members of the practice team, including the physician
- Maintaining a minimum 30-day supply of PPE
- Maintaining a 30-day inventory of hand soap, hand sanitizer and janitorial supplies, including bleach and surface disinfectants
- Guidelines on staff breaks and lunchroom practices to ensure physical distancing
- Temperature taking of staff prior to beginning a workday
Matuszewski adds that a major change to her organization’s membership requirements will be mandatory adherence to the playbook and any other best practice regulations that are instituted for patient and staff safety and third-party payor reimbursement, which is likely to expand payment of new or enhanced services as it did with virtual consults.
“The majority of our members have modern practices with electronic health record systems and HIPAA-compliant virtual consult capabilities, but moving forward, such technologies may be mandatory for MedNetOne membership,” Matuszewski said. “So will the use of care team members for practices with more than two physicians. Seemingly overnight, the doctor’s office has gotten significantly more complex and we need to be prepared.”
In addition to a re-opening playbook, Matuszewski says practices also need a business recovery plan, and ongoing, planned training and education of the practice team.
“While we still need the old school touch of a physician, the new normal demands business acumen, modern tools, multi-disciplinary teams, adding the cleaning company as a new member of the practice team and incorporation of measures that identify and respond to the social determinants of health. Payors will be looking for these enhancements – and such actions will prepare us for future pandemics as well.”
MedNetOne requires the adoption of patient and office safety measures immediately upon re-opening, and other mandatory changes will be phased in over the course of the next year. The organization will use its care team members to perform practice audits and questionnaires for both the clinical providers and office staff to ensure compliance.
About MedNetOne Health Solutions
Based in Rochester, Mich., MedNetOne Health Solutions is a leader in advancing the development and implementation of the Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) and advanced primary care. Its physician/provider members are focused on fully integrated, population-based, patient-centric practices that enhance patient outcomes and meet government healthcare reform mandates. Learn more here.
###