The custom trailer will serve as a mobile pharmaceutical processing and distribution facility for the Capital City and surrounding region in times of emergencies. Should WakeMed’s pharmacy or any area hospital pharmacy become damaged due to natural or manmade circumstances, this mobile unit will ensure patients are still able to receive their medications. Hurricane Katrina taught us many important lessons, like this one, as she crippled hospitals in her path.

The vehicle can also be deployed in the community to conduct mobile mass vaccination clinics.  Hopefully we won’t have another H1N1 scare but thanks to our federal and state elected officials, our area will be better prepared.

WakeMed Raleigh Campus

WakeMed has been an integral part of the Southeast Raleigh community for nearly 50 years, and as the largest organization in the area we are committed to being a good neighbor. We’re partnering with our community on several initiatives designed to transform this important gateway into our city, making New Bern Avenue an attractive welcome to people entering Raleigh from the I-440 Beltline, Highway 64 or downtown. We are hugely impressed with the revitalization of downtown Raleigh and are hopeful that it can extend into our community.

As part of Raleigh’s new comprehensive master plan, which went into effect on November 1, we will be working with city officials on the creation of a “Medical District” that encompasses WakeMed, Wake County health offices, WakeTech’s Health Sciences campus and other health-related organizations located near New Bern Avenue. This will allow us to better coordinate future development and create a better neighborhood atmosphere. Part of that involves transportation issues. One of our goals is to make the area around WakeMed easier to navigate – with more sidewalks, bike routes and bus stops.

One of the first things we’ve recently accomplished is our partnership with the N.C. Department of Transportation, the City of Raleigh and Triangle Transit Authority (TTA) to build a signalized pedestrian crosswalk on New Bern Avenue. Since the construction of two pharmacies across the street from the hospital, we’ve seen patients and their children make this dangerous walk across New Bern Avenue – one of the busiest thoroughfares in Wake County. A new crosswalk will help prevent accidents and will keep our patients and their families safe after they leave our campus.

In addition, we have been talking with the Raleigh Police Department about how we can work together to improve public safety and reduce violent crime in the community. We will share more information about those efforts in a future blog post.

Their visit coincided with a report from the Congressional Budget Office indicating that malpractice reform could have saved about $11 billion in health care costs this year. We need to create limits for medical malpractice lawsuits, while still ensuring that patients are appropriately compensated for avoidable mistakes. I think it’s important to include medical malpractice reform as part of the health care package for one primary reason – it will reduce health care costs.  As Congress works to solve the health care issues facing our country, it shouldn’t overlook such a significant opportunity to reduce costs and improve health care.

To provide you with additional insight and information, I asked Dr. Ravish Sachar, a cardiologist with Wake Heart & Vascular Associates to write about his trip to Washington and his views on tort reform.

Tort Reform from a Physician Perspective
Ravish Sachar, MD
Wake Heart & Vascular Associates

Cost and access are critical issues that need to be addressed in health care reform, but to date everything except malpractice reform (which has major impact on both) seems to be on the table. This is why I recently accompanied a group of physicians from the Triangle area to Washington DC to meet with legislators to present our case for medical malpractice reform (Dr. Subhash Gumber, Dr. Prashant Patel, Dr. Joel Schneider, Dr. Matthew Hook, Dr. Benjamin Atkeson, Dr. Lakshman Rao, Dr. Brent Elmers, and Dr. Ritu Saluja). Our group met with staff and Congressional members in the offices of Senator Hagan and Representatives Schuler, Price, Miller, Etheridge and McIntyre.

The issue is this: one of the first lectures most physicians hear when starting their training is on how to avoid lawsuits.  This sets the tone for the way we practice medicine in this country – defensively.  The implications of defensive medicine are costly. It increases the price of our health care exponentially. For example, several studies have shown that approximately 90% of all physicians report ordering tests for defensive reasons, and between 18 to 26 percent of all imaging tests ordered by physicians are done so in an effort to avoid potential litigation.  These unnecessary tests clog our health care system, increase risks and cost for patients, and impede access as a whole. But the implications of medical malpractice go far beyond the costs of unnecessary tests and procedures. It also impacts where and how physicians choose to practice, thus, creating healthcare access issues.

We thank our legislators for listening to us and hope that the information we conveyed will be taken into account as they work toward a final health reform bill.  Real changes in the tort system could equal real savings that would go a long way in covering the large uninsured population.

Physiciansfortortreform.org has more information on the subject and, if you are a physician and agree that malpractice reform should be part of the overall healthcare reform, please show your support by signing the petition.

Health Care Reform

U.S. Representative Etheridge is hosting a discussion on the impact of health care reform on senior citizens this afternoon from 12:30 pm to 1:30 pm at the YWCA on Hargett St.  The event will take place downtown Raleigh YWCA (554 E. Hargett St., Raleigh).

The discussion is slated to cover Medicare shortfalls in prescription drug coverage, access to preventative care and coverage, and the need for increased Medicare reimbursement rates for primary care doctors.  Congressman Etheridge has invited three local experts, including a physician that practices at WakeMed, to address these issues and discuss how reform must provide solutions for seniors.

H1N1

Also today, Dr. Mark Piehl, WakeMed pediatric intensivist and Medical Director of the WakeMed Children’s Hospital, will participate in a Wake County press conference about H1N1.  Dr. Piehl will talk about WakeMed’s surveillance data to date and the importance of the visitation restrictions.  Tune into your local news tonight to learn more about H1N1 in our community.

The news conference is part of the partnership, ReadyWake! Flu, that brings Wake County leaders from different organizations together to provide public information.   The county’s ReadyWake web site and Twitter feed are also great resources.

It was great to see so many of North Carolina’s leaders, especially former Gov. Jim Hunt, one of our most beloved leaders.  Sen. Bill Purcell, a family doctor from Stanly County, asked about the rising cost of prescription drugs.  He knows firsthand the burden that high drug prices can place on patients.

President Obama also spoke about how our health care system can learn from the success of places like the Mayo Clinic or the Cleveland Clinic.  Those are clearly two of the nation’s most outstanding health care systems and there’s no doubt that we can learn a lot from them about how they successfully deliver quality care and control costs.

But there aren’t many health care organizations out there that compare to the Mayo Clinic.  Most hospitals and physician groups simply don’t have the same type of resources or funding that you find at large academic medical centers.  In fact, most hospitals across America look a lot more like WakeMed.  We are a hospital with humble roots that has grown into a regional health care provider because of hard work, a commitment to equal access and a position for excellence.  We care for every kind of patient you can imagine, including many of those who slip through the cracks of our current local, state and national health care environment.

As one of the largest “safety net” hospital organizations in North Carolina, we see the need for reform every day.  And we work hard to find creative ways to do our job better and more efficiently.  That’s what the thousands of community hospitals across our country do.  We find a way to treat the patients who are depending on us, regardless of whether they can pay.

In many ways, WakeMed is the type of hospital that President Obama is describing when he talks about the future of health care in America.  We hope to have the opportunity to bring him here and show him that if we can make health care reform work at a place like WakeMed, we can make it work anywhere.

Update July 30, 2009: After the town hall meeting, I had the opportunity to speak with Julie Henry at NBC and Rob Christensen at the News & Observer. See more of my comments in the following articles,”President Obama Brings Pitch For Healthcare Reform To Raleigh” and “Obama attacks insurers.”

This, and many other relevant articles, will be posted and stored in the News Archive section of this blog.