A Message from Shelly Voet, MD
April 28, 2021
Hello! I hope all of you are doing well and enjoying our beautiful spring weather. April has been another busy month for our Community Practice Advisory Council. Our updates are below. This issue of Synapse is a new format based on PCP feedback. You can now scroll to view and link to all articles. This month includes timely updates such as Michael Fisher’s retirement from CCHMC, the BK Rachford 100th anniversary, and virtual educational events.
Hospital Medicine – We met with Hospital Medicine leaders this month regarding their communication process. You may recall, based on PCP feedback, their division has a system to notify PCPs about admissions through Physician Priority Link (PPL) based on patient diagnosis. For routine admissions, residents will leave a message with your office that the patient is admitted. For more complex admissions, they will request a call back. As we continue to work on this communication, please review this process with your staff. You are always welcome to call the Hospital Medicine team (attending or resident) about your patients who are hospitalized using PPL, even with routine admissions. We also discussed current Liberty admission guidelines which are included HERE.
Cures Act Reminder – In compliance with the final rule of the CURES Act, CCHMC imaging and lab results are now available to patients and families with MyChart access when they are finalized. Epic Link does allow you to set up an alert (sent via email or text) when an abnormal result is posted (no PHI, just an alert that an abnormal result is final). Go to Home/Menu/Settings (“gear” icon top right) and Event Settings to set this up.
Urgent Messaging - Physician Outreach is working with us on a potential solution using text to alert pediatric providers in the community of urgent CCHMC system closures (such as the snow closures). This will be an opt-in system. More to come on this later.
Pediatric Match at CCHMC: CCHMC will be welcoming 59 new interns in July, including 41 categorical pediatrics interns; 7 Med-Peds; 5 Peds Neuro; 3 Triple Board; 2 Peds Genetics and 1 PMR. These interns come from 28 different medical schools, 15 states and 2 countries outside of the United States. The residency program appreciates all of those who teach residents in their practice.
COVID-19 – Incidence rates are steady in our region with an average of 12 new cases per 100,000 people per day. Test positivity remains less than 5% for the region. More than 45% of eligible adults have started their vaccine series in our region. Regional health systems have committed to support GET OUT THE VAX effort with a goal of vaccinating 80% of the eligible population by July 4. Two weekends in April and May have been designated for large vaccination events. Patients and families can view all vaccine sites available in our region at the Health Collaborative site (www.healthcollab.org). Patients who need transportation or assistance with scheduling can utilize the United Way’s 211 number. We can continue to do our part by ensuring patients and families have ACCURATE information about the vaccines, and that they are aware of age-based eligibility. Some private practices are also beginning to plan vaccine clinics. As Dr. Beers reminded us in her recent AAP letter, we should also encourage patients to inform us of COVID-19 vaccination status at WCC, as patients should not receive other vaccines 2 weeks prior or 2 weeks after COVID-19 vaccines. The Ohio AAP, Ohio Children’s Hospital Association, and CCHMC have materials you can share with families posted HERE. Finally, IDSA just posted a podcast summarizing presentation and clinical evaluation for the rare VTT syndrome with J&J vaccine. IDSA has the podcast on their website as well at www.idsa.org under Multimedia.
Dentistry - Dr. Jennifer Cully will be presenting a live educational event for PCPs in August related to fluoride varnish application in the PCP office. She is researching PCP fluoride prescribing patterns in partnership with the University of Washington. A survey will be sent to you in a few weeks. Please consider taking the short 5 minute survey as it will help inform the educational efforts.
Trauma Services –We appreciate everyone who provided feedback via the Trauma team survey sent earlier this month. We look forward to ongoing collaboration with this team.
As always, thanks for all you do to take care of our kids in the region. While this has been a very different and difficult year, I think all of us have realized that our role in supporting patients and families has never been more important. I have had the privilege of witnessing your commitment to your patients through CPAC, OVPCA, and the many live educational events. I am grateful to be part of this community. Please do not hesitate to reach out to me, your regional physician leader, or your Physician Outreach liaison if you have ideas about how we can collaborate to improve care for kids.
Thanks,
Shelly
Shelly F. Voet MD
Pediatric Associates PSC, CCHMC Executive Community Physician Leader - Shelly.voet@cchmc.org