News

Hello IMDA Members,

Our 6^th Annual Meeting last month in Oak Brook was, by every measure, a great success.  We had a terrific lineup of presentations which comprehensively covered the key subjects of POLST Illinois, reduction of hospital readmissions, rehabilitation of the medically complex patient, use of non-pharmacologic methods to address dementia behaviors, management of advanced Parkinson’s Disease, SNF implementation of a Parkinson’s Disease program, and MACRA.  Many thanks to the presenters, who used numerous actual cases in their discussions, resulting in thought provoking questions by the attendees and very interactive, stimulating dialogue. 

The evaluations indicate that over 90% of the record number of attendees thought that the conference met their expectations and professional needs, and felt empowered to implement specific changes or strategies to enhance their professional practice and competence.  Specific comments were that the CME activity was well organized, and that the information provided was very important, relevant, well-rounded and timely, and that it addressed difficult issues.

Slides of most of the presentations are currently available for IMDA members on the IMDA website, and videos of the lectures will be coming soon.

Many thanks to all of the organizers, sponsors, presenters and attendees that made the IMDA 6^th Annual Meeting a great event! 

All Best,

Noel DeBacker, MD

IMDA President

Hello IMDA Membership:

Please take a look at the following conference and mark your calendars! This will be another terrific conference, with content based upon the stated requests of last year's attendees. Dr. Julie Goldstein, Chief of Clinical Ethics, Dept. of Internal Medicine, Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center, who has chaired the POLST Illinois Task Force, will present Friday after dinner on Advance Care Planning and the POLST paradigm. Saturday morning, Dr. Peter Jaggard, Medical Director at Presbyterian Homes, will again present on Reduction of Readmissions, this time through a case-based approach. This will be followed by a presentation by Dr. Jason Gruss, Director of First Health's Department of Physical Medicine, on rehabilitation of the complex medical patient--from the physiatry perspective, and by Dr. Emily Carter, VP of Rehabilitation Services at Legacy Healthcare, from the physical therapy perspective. Dr. Monica Tegeler, Professor of Clinical Medicine at Indiana University, is also back by popular demand to address strategies for reducing antipsychotics--this time, focusing on individual dementia behaviors and non-pharmacologic interventions. After lunch, Dr. Tatyana Simuni, Professor of Neurology and Director of the Parkinson's Disease and Movement Disorders Center at Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine, will present an update on Management of Advanced Parkinson's Disease, to be followed by Mr. Ronald Benner, Executive Director & Director of Clinical Practice and Outcomes of the Lieberman Center for Health & Rehabilitation, CJE Senior Life, who will discuss considerations related to implementing a Parkinson's Disease program into a SNF. Finally, Dr. Rajeev Kumar, Medical Director of AMITA Health Geriatrics and IMDA Past President, will be discussing changes to Healthcare Delivery with MACRA.

This is a conference that no Illinois PA/LTC Facility Medical Director should miss. Many attending physicians, NP's, APN's, PA's, Directors of Nursing, Administrators, Social Workers, Pharmacists, and other interdisciplinary team members should also attend. Continuing education credit for attending the conference is as follows:

• CME: 9.25 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™
• CMD: 3.0 management hours and 6.25 clinical hours
• CEU: 9.25 clock hours and 9.25 participant hours
• This also a time and a place where we can collaborate professionally, and have a good time. I hope to see you all there!

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Noel A. DeBacker, MD, FACP, CMD

President

Illinois Medical Directors Association

Dear IMDA Members:

Congratulations to all of the conference planners, speakers and attendees of the first ever Bi-State conference on Post-acute and Long Term Care, a joint presentation of the Illinois and Missouri chapters of AMDA, held last weekend in St. Louis. It was outstanding in every way, from the topics and quality of the speakers, to the collaborative discussions with the members, and to the venue, which included a great ballgame Friday evening! I very much enjoyed working with the Missouri chapter and meeting a number of practicing physicians from Southern Illinois.

The lecture notes are available on the website, and lecture recordings will be available soon, free of charge to members—there will be plenty there to review. Many thanks go to our course coordinator, Abbey Galvin, who did a terrific job. If you attended this event, please get the word out to your colleagues—with things changing so rapidly in this industry, it is absolutely necessary for medical directors to be exposed to this information.

We are actively planning the content of IMDA’s 6th Annual Meeting, to be held in Oak Brook on 9/23-9/24/2016—save the date. This is THE essential meeting in Illinois for medical directors, attending physicians, nurse practitioners, IDT members, pharmacists, administrators and other stakeholders in PA/LTC. I hope to see you again there.

All Best,

Noel

Noel A. DeBacker, M.D., FACP, CMD

President, IMDA

@ImdaNoel

Hello IMDA Members,

For those of you who could not attend, I would like to provide you with a recap of the IDMA Annual State Chapter Meeting held during the AMDA meeting in Orlando on 3/18/2016. It was overall an excellent meeting with a lot of opportunity for collaboration between members. We discussed the success of the 5th Annual Meeting in September in Bloomingdale and there was much excitement about the upcoming Bi-State Conference on Post-acute and Long Term Care, to be held 4/15-4/17/2016 in St. Louis.

We were also very pleased to introduce our two AMDA Futures Program award recipients:

Dr. Jennifer Fernandez, a Fellow in Geriatric Medicine at Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine. She is originally from Highlands, North Carolina and attended college and medical school in Charleston, SC. She has had a long-standing interest in geriatric medicine. After completing residency in Asheville, NC she moved to Charlotte, NC, where she worked as faculty at the FM Residency Program in Monroe, NC for 3 years before beginning a geriatric medicine fellowship at Northwestern University.

Dr. Chris Lee, a Family Practice Resident at University of Chicago/North Shore University. He is originally from Vancouver, British Columbia and is interested in pursuing a profession in primary care medicine. He is particularly interested in continuity of care—providing care across all venues.

Each year, we plan to sponsor two AMDA Futures, and benefits include 3-day registration to the AMDA Annual Conference, one year of AMDA membership (which now includes free webinars), access to a program dedicated to professional development, transportation to and from the meeting and four nights lodging. Please let us know who you would like to nominate for this excellent opportunity.

The Illinois Chapter led the way in advocacy, proposing six resolutions to the AMDA House of Delegates, and every one passed! One was even split into two at the meeting, so technically seven resolutions were passed. These resolutions help to shape AMDA’s public policy and lobbying efforts, and covered a wide range of issues of importance to providers of post-acute and long term care. The subjects were:

1. Reimbursing Physician Practices for Administrative Costs of Value-Based Purchasing Programs

2. Ensuring Appropriate Risk Adjustment prior to Implementation of VBP Programs

3. Holding CMS Accountable for Timely and Accurate Data

4. Establishing the Specialty of PA/LTC Medicine

5. Removing Pain Scores from Quality Metrics

6. Using NPI instead of TIN in Value Based Purchasing Programs

IMDA is committed to getting your concerns to the national level. If you see a system-wide problem that interferes with care delivery or is burdensome to PA/LTC providers, let us know.

Finally, a new IMDA Board Member was elected by the chapter members:

Nancy Willens MSN, GNP-BC, who is currently a Nurse Practitioner for Northshore Practitioners, Inc., Chicago, IL and Principal of Quality Health Unlimited, P.C. providing APN services in long term care facilities. She received her Nurse Practitioner training at Rush University in 1998. She has over 25 years experience working with older adults in skilled nursing and outpatient care.

Nancy mentors advanced practice nursing students for Loyola University and University of Illinois Chicago. She is Chair of the Gerontological Advanced Practice Nurses Association (GAPNA) Foundation Board, past president of the Chicagoland Gerontological Advanced Practice Nurses Organization (CGAPN) and past Secretary of GAPNA.

In addition to serving on the GAPNA Foundation, she continues to be an active member of CGAPN and GAPNA.

Nancy will be a welcome addition to the IMDA Board and we look forward to working with her.

I hope to see you in St. Louis!

Noel A. DeBacker, M.D., FACP, CMD

President

IMDA, The Illinois Chapter of AMDA: The Society for Post-Acute and Long Term Care

Dear Fellow IMDA members,

This year promises to be a very exciting one for our organization. For the first time, there will be a Bi-State Conference, which will be held in St. Louis at the Ballpark Hilton on the weekend of 4/16-4/17/2016. There will be a reception on the evening of 4/15 with time afterwards for the option of going to the Cardinals/Reds ballgame, opening week at home. This conference will have nationally recognized speakers on the topics of most relevance to post-acute rehabilitation and long term care, with 9 hours of educational credit. This will be a wonderful opportunity to meet and collaborate with your colleagues, and to exchange ideas with others who do the same work that you do.

Our 5th Annual Meeting, held in Bloomingdale, Illinois last September, received outstanding reviews, with 95% of attendees saying that the activities met their current needs, enhanced their professional practice and competence, and matched the scope of their professional practice. 95% of attendees also said that the selected faculty members met with their professional expectations. Selected strengths were the panel discussion and interactive sessions, quality of the speakers and content, with special emphasis on anti-psychotic reduction and reducing hospital re-admissions. The depth of content and clarity provided by speakers, as well as concrete suggestions and strategies for improvement were also mentioned.

We are very grateful to the Illinois Health Care Association for their generous support, and look forward to continued collaboration with them, as well as with the Illinois Chapter of the American Society of Consultant Pharmacists, and the Great Lakes Chapter of the Gerontological Advanced Practice Nurse Association.

Thirty-three years ago, when I was starting my career as a Medical Director, I felt as though I was alone and practicing in a “silo”. Today, we have the great strength and advantage of being able to see what others are doing. IMDA is for all of Illinois—it is time for us all to get together and learn from each other.

Please be sure to renew your membership, and I hope to see you in St. Louis!

Sincerely,

Noel

Noel A. DeBacker, M.D., FACP, CMD

President

Illinois Medical Directors Association