SJMMG in the News
SJMMG internal medicine physician, William
F. Beaman, M.D. (Des Peres Internal Medicine North), has been named one
of three Unity Health Hospice Medical Directors, providing clinical direction
and support to multi-disciplinary hospice teams. Dr. Beaman will guide and
support the north, south and west St. Louis County teams.
“I am very fortunate to have such a dedicated group
of physicians,”said Lisa Heisserer, director of Unity Health Hospice. “Each
one of them has a true heart for hospice. They work as a part of the hospice
interdisciplinary team to allow Unity Health Hospice to be part of patient
and families lives and provide quality end of life care.”
Dr. Beaman is board certified in internal medicine. He received
his medical degree in 1991 from the University of Missouri School of Medicine
in Columbia, Mo., and completed his residency at St. John’s Mercy Medical
Center in St. Louis. Dr. Beaman feels that Hospice allows a unique and rewarding
opportunity to help patients when they most need it. “We help patients
through the last stage of their life and allow for a death with dignity and
peace,”he commented. “It is a privilege for me to work with such
a great collection of wonderful, compassionate caregivers.”
Unity Health Hospice provides vital end-of-life services
to more than 1,140 patients and their families each year in St. Louis and Washington,
Mo. Hospice is available 24 hours a day to assist with the care of patients,
regardless of their age, race, gender, creed, physical condition or ability to
pay for services. For more information, please call 314-729-4400 in St. Louis
or 1-877-236-8141 in Washington.
Thomas
Hale, M.D., Ph.D., participated in panel discussion on telemedicine and
electronic medical records as they pertain to the management of the chronically
ill during an episode of the KETC Channel 9 series, Remaking Missouri Medicine.
The national series, Remaking American Medicine (which will air in September
on KETC), tells the stories of people struggling with the challenges facing
our health care system. In partnership with Primaris (Missouri's Quality
Improvement Organization) and community partners throughout the state, KETC's
local companion series, Remaking Missouri Medicine, explores the health care
challenges Missouri faces. Stories for the local programs come from throughout
the state.
SJMMG was recognized recently with a 2005 Environmental Award
by Shred-Pro. MMG’s paper recycling activities resulted in 303 trees saved
during 2005. Shred-Pro is an on-site document destruction company located in
Maryland Heights, Mo.
Mercy Family Medicine, part of St. John's Mercy Medical Group,
is welcoming two new family medicine physicians to the practice: Sarah
Cole, D.O., who joined effective April 17, and Serin Phruttitum, M.D.,
who will join effective July 5.
Dr.
Cole graduated cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in biology from Truman State
University in Kirksville, Mo. She obtained her medical degree from the Kirksville
College of Osteopathic Medicine, also in Kirksville, and completed her family
medicine residency at St. John’s Mercy Medical Center in 2006, serving as Chief
Resident. Dr. Cole is board eligible in family medicine and on staff at St.
John’s Mercy Medical Center. She is a member of the American Academy of Family
Physicians, the American College of Osteopathic Family Physicians, the American
Medical Association and the American Osteopathic Association.
Dr.
Phruttitum obtained his bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of
Missouri, Kansas City, and completed his medical degree at the University of
Missouri, Kansas City, School of Medicine. He completed his family medicine
residency at the Michigan State University McLaren Family Practice Residency
Program in Flint, Michigan, serving as Chief Resident. There, he was awarded
the Cyrus Farrehi Award for excellence in academic medicine in both 1998 and
1999. Prior to joining Mercy Family Medicine, Dr. Phruttitum served as a full
time faculty member for the McLaren Family Practice Residency Program and as
an assistant clinical professor for the Michigan State University College of
Human Medicine. He is board certified in family medicine and is a member of
the American Academy of Family Physicians.
Mercy Family Medicine is located in Suite 300 at 12680 Olive
Blvd. in Creve Coeur. In addition to Drs. Cole and Phruttitum, the practice
includes Peter
Danis III, M.D.; Grant
Hoekzema, M.D.; James
Lord, M.D.; Marsha
Mertens, M.D.; and Sandra
Minchow-Proffitt, M.D.; St. John's Mercy Medical Group (SJMMG) is a physician-governed
group practice affiliated with St. John’s Mercy. SJMMG consists of 150 board
eligible and board certified primary care and specialist physicians practicing
in 65 locations throughout the St. Louis metropolitan area. .
Dr.
Robert Bradshaw and Dr.
Judith Stucki of Primary Care Pediatrics have closed their Hazelwood,
Mo., office and transitioned their North County patients to the practice’s
St. Peters location:
107 Piper Hill Drive, Suite 230
St. Peters, MO 63376
Phone: 636-928-5950
SJMMG pediatricians, Tracey
Daly-Wilson, M.D., Sandeep
Rohatgi, M.D., and Douglas
Sakmar, M.D., together with pediatric nurse practitioner, Rebecca Bartholomew,
RN, MSN, CPNP, have relocated to a new building:
12348 Old Tesson Road, Suite 160
St. Louis, MO 63128
Phone: 314-467-3800
On
February 6th, board eligible internal medicine physician, Pilaipun Jane Saengsamran-Williams,
M.D., joined MMG's Creve Coeur Primary Care, located in the St. John's Mercy
Building at Olive and Mason. Dr. Saengsamran-Williams obtained her medical
degree from the University of Missouri School of Medicine in Kansas City and
completed her internship and residency at St. John's Mercy Medical Center.
She is a member of the American College of Physicians.
Contact information for the practice appears below:
Creve Coeur Primary Care
Marc Merbaum, M.D.
Pilaipun Jane Saengsamran-Williams, M.D.
12680 Olive Blvd, #100
St. Louis, MO 63141
Phone: 314-251-8900
Karen
Slattery, F.N.P., G.N.P., a nurse practitioner, has joined Abercrombie
Family Medicine, located at 18 Fox Valley Center in Arnold, Mo. Slattery
completed a geriatric nurse practitioner program, as well as her Master’s
and bachelor’s degrees in nursing, at Rush University in Chicago,
Illinois. She trained as a family nurse practitioner through a post-graduate
program at the University of Missouri, Columbia.
SJMMG Physicians Attain NCQA Certification
As part of an ambitious quality improvement effort, a group of St. John’s Mercy Medical Group (SJMMG) adult and family medicine physicians have attained three-year certification by the National Committee on Quality Assurance (NCQA) for excellence in diabetes care and in the care of patients with heart disease or stroke. Many other eligible SJMMG physicians have met the criteria for certification and are awaiting formal recognition by the NCQA.
NCQA is a private, non-profit organization dedicated to improving health care quality. NCQA accredits and certifies a wide range of health care organizations, recognizes physicians and physician groups in key clinical areas and manages the evolution of HEDIS®, the tool the nation’s health plans use to measure and report on their performance.
The NCQA Diabetes Physician Recognition Program was designed in conjunction with the American Diabetes Association to improve the quality of care received by patients with diabetes. When people with diabetes receive quality care as outlined by these measures, they are less likely to suffer complications, such as heart attacks, stroke, blindness, kidney disease and amputations.
Similarly, the NCQA Heart/Stroke Recognition Program was designed in conjunction with the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association to improve the quality of care received by patients with cardiovascular disease or stroke, making them less likely to suffer additional complications, such as a second heart attack or stroke.
These two national-level recognition programs require detailed chart audits demonstrating that each physician meets key measures of patient care. In diabetes care, the criteria include blood sugar, blood pressure, and cholesterol control, as well as monitoring for eye and kidney disease. In heart disease and stroke care, the criteria include cholesterol and blood pressure control, aspirin use for prevention of future events, and smoking cessation.
SJMMG Headache Specialists Achieve UCNS Certification
SJMMG physicians, Timothy Smith, M.D., R.Ph., FACP, and James Banks, Jr., M.D.—both of Mercy Health Research (MHR) and the Ryan Headache Center—recently earned Subspecialty Certification for Headache Medicine through the United Council for Neurologic Subspecialties (UCNS). Both physicians were required to demonstrate expertise in clinical management of headache disorders through clinical practice, research activities, contributions to the medical literature and educational pursuits. They then were required to pass a rigorous certification examination administered in September.
This is the first time that certification in Headache Medicine has been offered through an accredited certification organization in the United States, making Drs. Smith and Banks among the country’s first clinicians to receive such recognition. The UCNS Headache Medicine certification is currently the only headache management certificate of added qualification to be recognized and endorsed by both the American Academy of Neurology and the American Headache Society.
MHR and the Ryan Headache Center have achieved national and international recognition in the field of headache treatment and research over the past 10 years. The addition of this credential for these two clinicians certainly is a success story for SJMMG. Please join the medical group in congratulating Drs. Smith and Banks on their achievement.
SJMMG Pediatrician Named to National Quality Improvement Committee
St. John’s Mercy Medical Group (SJMMG) pediatrician and newly appointed Pediatric Medical Director, Sandeep Rohatgi, M.D., has joined the Ad Hoc Committee on Quality for the American Academy of Pediatrics’ (AAP’s) Steering Committee on Quality Improvement and Measurement (SCOQIM). This is significant because it means SJMMG will have a voice in national quality measures developed for pediatric patients.
Payers, plans, consumers and physicians are utilizing quality measurement in various forms to improve the overall quality of care and contain growing health care costs. The field of pediatric measurement has been growing, as well, as large national organizations—including the National Quality Forum (NQF), the American Medical Association’s (AMA’s) Physician Consortium for Performance Improvement (Consortium), and the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO)—now are beginning to consider pediatric topics. For example, the NQF’s initial hospital performance measure set included three pediatric measures. Additionally, several child quality measures at the health plan level are included in the National Committee on Quality Assurance’s (NCQA’s) HEDIS measurement set.
The SCOQIM has monitored these developments and is participating in activities around quality measurement, improvement and incentive payment plans, recognizing that pediatric representatives should be included in these efforts at national, state and local levels. The SCOQIM believes it is essential for organizations focused on pediatric care be actively involved to ensure that measures and standards appropriately reflect quality of care for children and adolescents and the unique needs of this population.
SCOQIM members serve as AAP liaisons to the AMA Consortium, the NCQA Practicing Physician Advisory Committee, and the NQF. The SCOQIM also will provide input on the developing Alliance for Pediatric Quality (APQ), a consortium of pediatric organizations—including the AAP—dedicated to providing consensus on pediatric quality measurement. Most important, the SCOQIM is finalizing a policy statement that provides a set of principles for quality measurement to guide the AAP in determining how it should approach this field. The principles address issues of improvement and accountability and present criteria on which measures for each activity should be based.
The Ad Hoc Committee on which Dr. Rohatgi will serve will build on current activities of the SCOQIM. Specifically, it will:
• Review and comment on draft measures;
• Share and discuss summary reports of national measurement committees (i.e., the AMA Consortium, APQ, NCQA, NQF, etc.);
• Volunteer for various national measurement organizations and subcommittees.
SJMMG Physician Named Best in North County
St. John’s Mercy Medical Group (SJMMG) family medicine physician, Terrell Mulford, D.O., was voted the number one physician in North County for the second year in a row by readers of the Suburban Journals in their “Best of 2006” poll. Congratulations to Dr. Mulford!
SJMMG Physician Receives Distinguished Service Award
SJMMG family medicine physician, Heather Jordan, M.D. (MMG North County), was chosen by the Zeta Sigma Chapter of the Sigma Gama Rho Sorority, Inc., to receive a 2007 Dr. George Washington Carver Distinguished Service Award recognizing her contributions to the metropolitan area in the field of health. Sigma Gamma Rho is a national service sorority founded in 1922. Dr. Jordan was honored on January 20 at a ceremony at the Overland Community Center.
SJMMG Practice Sees First St. Louis-Area Baby of 2007
SJMMG congratulates Thomas Harrison, M.D., and the staff of St. Charles County Pediatrics, 2740 Highway 94 South, Ste. A, St. Charles, MO, 63303. These co-workers have the honor of caring for the first St. Louis-area baby born in the New Year. The child was delivered at 12:04 a.m. on January 1 at St. John’s Mercy Medical Center.
SJMMG Practices Recognized by Missouri Quality Program
Three St. John’s Mercy Medical Group (SJMMG) practices—Baxter Internal Medicine, Des Peres Internal Medicine South and Florissant Oaks Internal Medicine—are being recognized by Primaris as participants in the Doctors Office Quality Information Technology (DOQ-IT) program. The practices are listed in an ad, right, which appears in the current issues of Missouri Medicine, Missouri Family Physician, and the newsletter of the Missouri Association of Osteopathic Physicians and Surgeons. The following SJMMG adult medicine physicians are included:
Jennifer Carpenter, M.D.
Jeffrey Faron, M.D.
Mark Faron, M.D.
J. Gavin Helton, M.D.
Joseph Hilgeman, M.D.
Andrew Kazdan, M.D.
Edward Kunst, M.D.
Martin Reis, M.D.
Keith Starke, M.D.
Michael Treisman, M.D.
