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Beaver Medical Group had the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to
have the President of the American Medical Association stop by for
a visit earlier this year.
Dr. Randy Smoak, a South Carolina Surgeon and the current AMA president,
called Dr. Bangasser, Beaver’s Medical Director, to see if
he could come see Beaver during a trip to LA. He had heard of Beaver’s
excellent reputation for quality in the state and had met Dr. Bangasser
at political functions.
Dr. Bangasser jumped at the chance to provide Dr. Smoak with an
overview and tour of Beaver.
Dr. Bangasser brought the AMA president to his office in Redlands.
Quality Management was the first topic of conversation.Linda McKevitt,
the Director of Quality Management, noted that the key to the excellent
quality of care provided by Beaver is physician control of patient
care decisions.
Dr. Ounanian then presented information on Information Technology
and Beaver’s plans for future automation. All physicians at
Beaver already have computers that can instantly look up transcription,
radiology reports, and laboratory results from both Beaver and Redlands
Community Hospital.
After the talk, Dr. Bangasser and Dr. Smoak then headed off to the
Beaver Board meeting, which happened to be the same day. Dr. Smoak
said to the Board, “I called and asked to come and see your
whole operation. I was intrigued by your ability to provide quality
care... in the managed care environment.”
Reporters from the Sun Newspaper and the Press Enterprise also attended
the meeting and had a chance to ask Dr. Smoak some questions. They
both published articles the next day noting Dr. Smoak’s praise
of BMG.
After the meeting, Dr. Smoak headed upstairs to Cardiology to hear
about the Coumadin clinic. Coumadin is a blood thinner that should
be carefully monitored in patients to make sure they are not taking
too much or too little. Dr. Marais talked about how the clinic enables
Cardiology to better monitor patients and track their levels using
a special software program.
Then, Jan Hall in Patient Education and Dr. Munson and Dr. Shankel
talked about the Asthma Management Program. They presented a study
showing that patients who have completed the asthma program were
17 times less likely to go to the emergency room than other Beaver
patients who had not.
“You’re doing things I haven’t seen before,”
remarked Dr. Smoak.
Lastly, Dr. Bangasser took the AMA Chief to Highland in order to
show off the infusion center in Oncology and the brand new GI lab
in Gastroenterology. They ended the visit with a look at primary
care in both the Extended Care Center and Internal Medicine.
According to Dr. Bangasser, the tour met Dr. Smoak’s objective
which was “finding out what we do at Beaver that is working.
We do a lot to provide quality care.”
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