Patient Care

Never underestimate Elizabeth Taylor!" So say I. On Saturday night in Hollywood, at Paramount Studios, Elizabeth Taylor defied naysayers and exceeded every expectation (perhaps even her own) appearing onstage with James Earl Jones to perform A.R. Gurney's bittersweet play Love Letters. If the star had collapsed days, hours, seconds before the lights went up, she had already raised more than a million dollars for AIDS patient care (via her AIDS/HIV Foundation). Everybody would have understood - Elizabeth is frail after years of declining health.

The American Medical Association, whose members viewed themselves for decades as elite professionals who did not need a union, voted yesterday to form a union for doctors in what it called an effort to level the playing field with powerful managed-care organizations.At a delegates meeting in Chicago, the 290,000-member association jettisoned its anti-unionization stance because so many doctors complain of feeling powerless in their dealings with health maintenance organizations.Several health industry experts said the decision by the AMA, long a pillar of conservatism, underlined how sweeping the changes have been in the health-care industry and how frustrated and angry thousands of doctors have become.

New positionsSchlossman and Smith take posts at BICBaltimore International College appointed Mark Schlossman purchasing director and Scott J. Smith a senior accountant for the culinary arts and hospitality trades school.Schlossman, a University of Maryland graduate and Annapolis resident, formerly was an assistant purchasing director with the Charlestown Retirement Community. Smith, a certified public accountant, also graduated from the University of Maryland and was acting general ledgers manager for U.S. Foodservice Corp.

The second Baltimore-area nursing home within a month is losing state and federal funding because of repeated problems with patient care, the latest of which sent an 89-year-old woman suffering from dehydration to the hospital, state health officials said.Carol Benner, director of the state health department, said yesterday that funding would be cut off Dec. 30 for new patients admitted to Irvington Knolls Care Center at 22 S. Athol Ave. in West Baltimore. Funding for current patients in the 220-bed facility will end Jan. 28."

WASHINGTON -- The House will begin wrestling today with legislation nominally aimed at protecting patient rights. But the theme of the debate might be called the doctors strike back.After years of falling incomes and growing bureaucratic obstacles to delivering treatment they deem necessary, physicians are leading the drive to regain some control from managed-care plans.Both in front-line roles as lawmakers and behind the scenes as lobbyists, medical professionals are venting frustration with an upheaval in the health insurance industry that has left many of them as unhappy as their patients.

THE VOTE by American Medical Association to form a labor union should induce health maintenance organizations to reconsider the way they do business with physicians and patients.The AMA's move is a drastic one.Not only do doctors have a median salary of about $164,000 a year, but by tradition they are entrepreneurs not laborers.Yet many feel overly constrained by limitations on their ability to prescribe drugs, to refer patients to specialists and to keep patients hospitalized as long as they think necessary.

Carroll County General Hospital recently received accreditation with commendation from the Joint Commission of Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations.The Illinois-based accreditation agency evaluates and accredits nearly 11,000 hospitals and home care agencies, and more than 7,000 other health care organizations nationwide. It was founded in 1951.While evaluating Carroll County General, agency officials said they were "consistently impressed" with the hospital's "pragmatic" pursuit of excellence and commitment to improved patient care.

New positionsChurch Home and Hospital names Failing as presidentChurch Home and Hospital, one of seven hospitals that are part of the Helix/Medlantic Healthcare Group, named Ann C. Failing as president.A West Virginia University nursing graduate, Failing joined the East Baltimore hospital staff in 1986 as associate director of nursing and was appointed vice president of patient care in 1989. In that role, she coordinated patient care services on all levels of the hospital and its affiliated long-term care facility, Church Home.

Helix Health has signed a 10-year contract with Computer Sciences Corp. of El Segundo, Calif., to develop an automated purchasing, warehousing and distribution system to manage supplies for Helix's five hospitals, CSC announced yesterday.As part of the deal, about 20 Helix employees have gone to work for CSC.The arrangement came out of a Helix "re-engineering" effort called "Building Helix Health." It is expected to save Helix $42 million over 10 years and be worth some $70 million to CSC over that period.

Dr. Eugenie E. Phillips, an obstetrician-gynecologist who delivered several generations of West Baltimore babies, died Friday of a stroke at her Glen Burnie home.She was 80 and had moved several years ago from Edmondson Avenue to Glen Burnie.She and her husband, also a physician, opened a practice together in the Lafayette Square neighborhood. Their office was in a three-story rowhouse at 1612 Edmondson Ave., where a small waiting room overflowed with patients who sought Dr. Phillips' time and care.

AGE: 48 SALARY: $91,000 TIME ON THE JOB: 8 months How she got started: : Mary Franco began at Northwest Hospital Center in 1979 as a nursing assistant. In 1985, she graduated with an associate's degree in nursing from what is now the Catonsville location of the Community College of Baltimore County. She began working as a nurse in acute care and later moved to the heart care unit. In January, the position of clinical care coordinator was created, and Franco jumped at the opportunity.

Team approach best for primary care The article "Nurse practitioners pick up the slack in providing primary care" (Aug. 9) makes an important point about building our primary care workforce. However, it should be expanded to mention the importance of team care in providing high quality primary care. Nurse practitioners and physicians ideally function in a close professional relationship, communicating frequently such that each can bring his or her own insights to a clinical issue. Nurses, physician assistants, administrative staff and other health professionals are often members individually or in various combinations of a primary care team.

Like so many primary-care providers strapped for time, Tricia Angulo-Bartlett crams as much as she can into a 15-minute patient visit. At one last week, she counseled Amy Tucker about her coming surgery, evaluated her chronic sinusitis and scribbled a few prescriptions, taking time to explain the side effects and directions of each one. Along the way, she managed to ask about Tucker's twin boys. Then Angulo-Bartlett was off to dictate her notes and on to the next patient. She'll see 26 in a typical day. Such is the life of a busy nurse practitioner, a group of providers that is increasingly helping deliver primary care amid a national shortage of family doctors.

Market cannot cure what ails health care As a practicing physician for almost 40 years, I read with sheer incredulity the column "Cut health costs through market innovation" (Commentary, Oct. 7). The column advocates "using innovation to make health care cheaper and more accessible." But the basic reasons U.S. health care costs continue to rise each year at an alarming rate are the fact that we have an aging population and the continuing introduction of new, high-tech procedures and medications.

Baltimore : Johns Hopkins Physician named 1 of most influential A Johns Hopkins physician whose research focuses on improving patient care - including the use lof airline-style checklists in critical care units - has been named to this year's list of Time magazine's 100 most influential people. Dr. Peter Pronovost, a professor of anesthesiology and critical care, was cited for his efforts to improve the way medical care is delivered to patients around the world. This year, Provonost's work drew headlines when federal regulators told Michigan hospitals to stop providing him with data while they reviewed whether his studies technically violated informed consent rules.

Never underestimate Elizabeth Taylor!" So say I. On Saturday night in Hollywood, at Paramount Studios, Elizabeth Taylor defied naysayers and exceeded every expectation (perhaps even her own) appearing onstage with James Earl Jones to perform A.R. Gurney's bittersweet play Love Letters. If the star had collapsed days, hours, seconds before the lights went up, she had already raised more than a million dollars for AIDS patient care (via her AIDS/HIV Foundation). Everybody would have understood - Elizabeth is frail after years of declining health.

Howard hospital appoints Hadsell Sharon P. Hadsell has been named senior vice president of patient care services at Howard County General Hospital. She is responsible for all clinical areas that involve nursing care, such as inpatient nursing units; emergency services; women's and children's services; ancillary services, such as rehabilitation; clinical education; and patient care staffing and operations. She was director of clinical support services at Sinai Hospital in Baltimore. Hadsell holds a bachelor's degree in nursing from Southern Illinois University and a master's degree in nursing from Loyola University of Chicago.

Keswick Multi-Care Center, a long-term care facility in North Baltimore, has named Tess Ruby as director of the new Memory Care assisted-living facility. Ruby will oversee admissions, the daily operations and staffing of the facility. Previously, Ruby was assistant administrator at Heartlands at Severna Park. LifeBridge Health has appointed Dr. Michael A. Williams as medical director of the Brain & Spine Institute at Sinai Hospital. Williams, a board-certified neurologist and a leading authority on adult hydrocephalus, is also the director of the Adult Hydrocephalus Center at Sinai.

What if medical care came with a 90-day warranty? That is what a hospital group in central Pennsylvania is trying to learn in an experiment that some experts say is a radically new way to encourage hospitals and doctors to provide high-quality care that can avoid costly mistakes. The group, Geisinger Health System, has overhauled its approach to surgery. And taking a cue from the makers of television sets, washing machines and other consumer products, Geisinger essentially guarantees its workmanship, charging a flat fee that includes 90 days of follow-up treatment.

Matt Wanex Physical therapist Greater Baltimore Medical Center, Towson Salary --$75,000 Age --34 Years on the job --Five How he got started --As a biology major with a concentration in anatomy and physiology at Towson University, Wanex knew he wanted to enter the medical field. But it wasn't until he sustained a knee injury playing soccer and had to undergo physical therapy that he knew this would be his specialty. "I liked the interaction you had with patients, the time you spent with the patient versus the paperwork and getting someone through the recovery process."