Many of you are aware of hospice, either as inpatient or free standing service, which is a program providing a comprehensive set of services. These services include those that offer comfort and assistance to terminally ill patients with less than 6 months to live. Continue reading
Category Archives: PHC Services
The dose makes the poison – Paracelsus
The MMWR recently reported that in the current problem with the abuse of prescription drugs, alcohol plays a significant role in ED department visits, including opioid pain reliever (OPR) and benzodiazepine (BZP) drug-related deaths. Using the Continue reading
Great quality conferences coming up
Partnership HealthPlan has always encouraged and promoted high quality care for our members. We encourage excellence in care through our Quality Improvement Program (QIP), a program which is very familiar to all Continue reading
BRCA Screening under Partnership HealthPlan
With the courageous public revelation of her decision for prophylactic bilateral mastectomy due to her BRCA deleterious mutation status, actress Angelina Jolie has brought into the public eye testing to determine genetic risk for developing Continue reading
Palliative care — a new tool in our arsenal
For those of us who take care of aging, increasingly frail patients, the office visits can be very difficult. These encounters invariably last longer than the time allotted. The patient’s needs are often crescendoing with each visit. Symptoms proliferate and Continue reading
Your Medi-Cal patients can get $20 for trying to stop smoking
Getting our smoking patients to put down their cigarettes (aka coffin nails) can be difficult. Sorry, I know this sounds like I’m preaching to the choir. Medi-Cal patients smoke at a higher rate – 31% – than patients with other insurance – 22%. They even smoke Continue reading
The top 7 rules for teleconference engagement
As Regional Medical Director, I am frequently at one end of a PHC teleconference – either video or phone – doing the best I can to understand and participate in the meeting. PHC clinicians are currently spread over six counties, making teleconferencing Continue reading
Am I seeing double? — Vision screening for members and members with diabetes – a double QIP win!
Did you know that many of our non-Kaiser PHC members have a separate vision care plan under Vision Service Plan (VSP)? They do. That information is available on the eligibility screen and also on their PHC card. These services can be provided by Continue reading
Enhanced services for Partnership’s outpatient network
In an effort to find ways to support our loyal outpatient clinicians in small and medium sized groups and Community Health Centers, Partnership HealthPlan surveyed these providers to see what they would prefer as far as Partnership helping with various Continue reading