Category: JULY – AUGUST MD News 2020

Crouse Health: Where Family is the Foundation

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By Cari Wade Gervin

Monday, June 29, 2020

The staff at Crouse Health’s Kienzle Family Maternity Center spend so much time helping new families come into existence, they’ve become their own workplace family, too.

 

“I feel like there’s a lot of camaraderie, which you need,” says Maria Ciciarelli, MD, FACOG, partner at CNY Women’s Healthcare. “If an urgent situation arises, nurses, other physicians and other attendings on the floor are the first to jump in. I think that’s one of the best things about working at Crouse.”

Suzanne Bartol, MD, FACOG, partner at Loftus, Ryu & Bartol agrees.

“We all work together and help each other out,” Dr. Bartol says. “But we are friends outside of being colleagues when we’re at work. That goes on at all levels, from residents to nurses to attendings.”

This tight-knit collegiality is why so many OB/GYNs have stayed at Crouse since they started medical school rotations or their residencies — in Dr. Bartol’s case, 19 years, and 16 years for Dr. Ciciarelli. It’s also why the standard of maternity care is so high at Crouse, says George Stanley, MD, FACOG, Assistant Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Upstate Medical University and a Crouse-affiliated obstetrician.

“We have a highly experienced and trusted team of obstetricians who look out for each other and are able to assist colleagues while teaching residents and medical students,” Dr. Stanley says. “It’s a different experience when you are managing difficult cases, deliveries and surgeries with a person who is in training. It means you, as the trainer, have to really know what you’re doing to guide the trainee so they eventually will be as good as — or even surpass — your skill set.”

Suzanne Bartol, MD and Maria Ciciarelli, MD, FACOG

When you ask physicians and staff what they love about working at Crouse Health’s Kienzle Family Maternity Center in Syracuse, you hear one word over and over: camaraderie.

 

“What differentiates Crouse maternity care is the fact that we have an entire hospital team available for both patients and physicians,” says Betty O’Connor, director of women’s and infants services. “There are five members of our nursing leadership team available to assist physicians and prospective patients through the process of selecting a physician and hospital to have their birth experience.”

Betty O’Connor, director of women’s and infants services confers with Brynne Stockton, RN, Nurse Manager (right)

 

A History of Woman-Centered Care

In 1887, no hospital in Syracuse offered maternity care or treated children. A group of 14 female community leaders, including Jessie Lansing Crouse (whose family would later fund the hospital enough to change its name), launched the Syracuse Women’s Hospital and Training School for Nurses. Crouse herself took the first five patients in her carriage to the home that housed the hospital.

Much has changed in medicine and maternity care over the past 133 years at Crouse, but the commitment to putting mothers first is still the number one priority.

The physicians, nurses and midwives at the Kienzle Family Maternity Center deliver close to 4,000 babies each year — more than any other hospital in upstate New York. Crouse also serves as the Regional Perinatal Center for the Central New York region.

Mothers come from diverse and varied backgrounds and hail from the Southern Tier all the way to the Canadian border.

Dr. Stanley says the nursing staff at Crouse has plenty of experience in treating different types of patient populations, which helps improve patient outcomes.

“We have nurses who have been with Crouse for 20 to 30 years and more,” Dr. Stanley says.

“These are our neighbors — our friends. These are the people we see in the grocery store. In a city the size of Syracuse, you run into your patients nonstop. And I think it’s a true team effort to provide the best care.”
— Stephen Brown, MD, FACOG, Director of Low-Risk Obstetrics at Crouse Health and President of CNY Obstetrics & Gynecology
Suzanne Bartol, MD

 

Low-Risk, High-Risk and Everything In-Between

The Kienzle Family Maternity Center is well known for its treatment of high-risk pregnancies, but most births each year are routine, low-risk births.

“If moms don’t want interventions, we don’t want to do any unless we need to,” Dr. Ciciarelli says.

The experience levels of the staff are important for all births, says Stephen Brown, MD, FACOG, director of Low-Risk Obstetrics at Crouse Health and president of CNY Obstetrics & Gynecology.

“I hear, ‘He’s the director of low-risk obstetrics, what’s his experience with high-risk obstetrics?’ Well, you never know when a pregnancy is going to go from low risk to high risk.” Dr. Brown says. “In the past week, I had a set of twins and another preterm baby who are both in the NICU right now.”

Given the maternal and infant mortality rates in the area, that level of care is crucial. In 2016, the state of New York was ranked 30th in the nation in maternal mortality. And Onondaga County has averaged 6.7 infant deaths per 1,000 live births in recent years, one of the highest rates in the state. It also has an 8.6% rate of preterm births, with 7.9% of babies born underweight.

“Crouse has 24-hour anesthesia care onsite,” Dr. Stanley notes. “When emergencies happen, we don’t have to call an anesthesiologist. If a patient has unplanned conditions that require intensive care, general surgery or neurosurgery, we have all those high-tech specialists right here at our fingertips.”

In addition to physicians and nurses, the maternity team includes lactation consultants, technicians and support staff.

“We are able to provide the one-on-one care our high-risk patients need,” Dr. Ciciarelli says.

And when neonatal intensive care is needed, the staff is ready.

“We have the highest level of NICU care available 24-7,” Dr. Brown says. “This gives patients confidence knowing they’re going to have anesthesia care and neonatal care available when they need it, if they need it. And it gives the physician — whether the pregnancy is low-risk or high-risk — the comfort level to say, ‘Listen, we can do what’s right. We can do it quickly. And we have backup in the NICU that’s available to us at all times.’”

“I really enjoy working at Crouse Health, even when it’s a stressful workday. It’s a work environment that’s conducive to taking care of patients and providing the best care possible.”
— Maria Ciciarelli, MD, FACOG, Partner at CNY Women’s Healthcare

Special Care for Tiny Babies

The Walter R.G. Baker Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Crouse serves up to 1,000 preterm and medically challenged babies each year. It is the only NICU in Central New York designated by the New York State Department of Health as a Regional Perinatal Center.

“We take care of the sickest babies,” says Brynne Stockton, RN, MSN, nurse manager of perinatal services. “We have highly skilled nurses who are always staying up-to-date with the latest evidence-based practices and the highest standards.”

Some infants need longer-term care. The antepartum care team provides support for those mothers and families, often becoming close friends.

“I personally have had an experience with a family that was here with an antepartum patient,” Stockton says. “The mother delivered here, and the baby was in the NICU for many days. I still keep in touch with that family. We try to meet each other when they’re in the area. And that’s not just an experience I’ve had, it’s an experience that many Crouse OB nurses have.”

Stockton says nurses become friends with former patients, and that patients routinely send Christmas cards and updates about their now-grown babies.

Dr. Bartol and George Stanley, MD

On the Same Page

Even during low-risk births, it’s important to have staff in sync.

“When you have a patient who’s laboring, you could spend significant time up there with the same people, and you really get to know each other and you also get to know your patients very well,” Dr. Bartol says. “ I think that makes the unit work really well. It’s not just a place to clock in and clock out.”

During high-risk births, that cohesive unit is invaluable. Dr. Brown experienced one situation when a patient was transferred to Crouse from another hospital after the delivery took a serious turn.

“The anesthesia team, NICU staff, nurses and I all communicated before the patient’s arrival,” Dr. Brown says. “Then, as soon as the lab work and our initial evaluations were done, we were in the operating room ready to deliver the patient’s baby. The ICU was notified in case the mother needed intensive care afterward. To have everyone on the same page, before the patient even arrived at the hospital — I think that that type of communication and that type of skill level is evident only at an institution like Crouse that has all the resources available around the clock.”

Those resources led Dr. Stanley’s wife to have her three children at Crouse. Dr. Bartol also delivered her three children at the hospital.

“Clearly, I’m biased because I have chosen to work at Crouse, but I also chose to have my own children here,” Dr. Bartol says. “I feel we’re able to provide that higher level of care with excellence without patients feeling like we are trying to medicalize their care. We want our patients to follow their birth plans as safely as possible.”

That’s what the Crouse camaraderie is all about.

“We are very supportive of each other,” Dr. Brown says. “Everyone truly wants what’s best for patients because we take pride in following evidence-based medicine and providing compassionate care. I think patients truly do get a great experience when they deliver at Crouse.”

A Regional Focus

The Crouse Health’s Kienzle Family Maternity Center doesn’t just serve Syracuse — it’s also been the Regional Perinatal Center for Central New York since 1975, serving mothers and infants from a 14-county region. The program provides care and promotes healthy outcomes for mothers and babies during pregnancy, birth and after, with a focus on high-risk pregnancies and children with special needs.

Physicians across the region refer patients to Crouse, based on New York State’s system for perinatal care, which delineates four different levels. As the RPC, Crouse provides education, advice and support to affiliate hospitals throughout the region.

Stephen Brown, MD, FACOG, with baby
 

For more information on maternity services at Crouse, visit crouse.org/services/maternity.

Auburn Community Hospital’s New Home for Women’s Health

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By Thomas Crocker

Monday, June 29, 2020

Anchored by OB/GYN services with a reputation for excellence, the Women’s Health Center at Auburn Community Hospital is fast becoming a comprehensive destination for women’s health that encompasses more than maternity services and gynecologic surgery.

Established earlier this year, the Women’s Health Center reflects a fundamental fact of women’s lives: their health and wellness needs change dramatically throughout life, from family planning and prenatal care to menopause and beyond. Caring for women across their lifespan requires diverse services, and that is what the Women’s Health Center offers.

“The Women’s Health Center reflects the evolution of Auburn Community Hospital’s commitment to women’s health,” says Loren Van Riper, MD, FACOG, Chief of OB/GYN Services at Auburn Community Hospital. “Initially, that revolved around obstetrics and gynecologic surgery, but we’ve pushed forward to include breast care and other services as part of the Women’s Health Center. This center was a long-term goal for the hospital because there was a need for it in our community. Women shouldn’t have to drive 45 minutes to Syracuse for the everyday health services they need.”

True to its roots, the Women’s Health Center offers full-spectrum maternity services, including prenatal care, labor and delivery, and postpartum care. In addition to providing obstetric care, Dr. Van Riper and his colleagues also perform the gamut of gynecologic surgery, including minimally invasive and vaginal procedures.

“We treat patients for endometriosis, pelvic pain, stress urinary incontinence, abnormal uterine bleeding and pelvic relaxation, among other problems,” Dr. Van Riper says. “I specialize in vaginal surgery. On the minimally invasive side, we frequently perform laparoscopic pelvic surgery, including hysterectomy, oophorectomy and tubal ligation.”

“I’m excited to work in the community where I grew up and at the hospital where I was born.”
— Amy Hoeft MacDonald, MD, OB/GYN, who joined Auburn Community Hospital and its Women’s Health Center in July

The Women’s Health Center also offers services that make it a destination for all women, not just new or expectant mothers. These services include breast care and imaging, with more planned for the future.

“Women tend to put others first — resulting in their own self-care being secondary,” says Tanya Paul, MD, FACOG, OB/GYN at Auburn Community Hospital. “It’s gratifying to be part of a center where women can receive all the care they need, including ultrasounds, screening mammograms, bone density screenings, referrals for colonoscopies and other preventive health services, and breast care from a SUNY Upstate Medical University specialist, in addition to OB/GYN services.”

An OB/GYN Team With Deep Community Ties

Auburn Community Hospital’s four board-certified OB/GYNs and three midwives recently moved their office to the hospital, where an attached, one-level building serves as the home of the Women’s Health Center. Over time, the hospital plans to migrate all women’s health providers and services to this building to bring everything under one roof.

The OB/GYN team features clinicians with decades of experience who share a passion for caring for women of all ages and improving women’s health in Central New York, where their roots run deep. Dr. Van Riper has lived in the Auburn area for years and practiced at Auburn Community Hospital for more than a decade, most of that time while serving as Chief of OB/GYN Services. A graduate of the University of Virginia School of Medicine, Dr. Paul performed her internship and residency at SUNY Upstate Medical University in Syracuse and practiced OB/GYN in Central New York for 13 years before joining Auburn Community Hospital in 2013.

OB/GYN Donald Calzolaio, MD, FACOG, graduated from SUNY Upstate Medical University and performed his residency at Upstate University and Crouse hospitals. He has cared for women in Central New York and Connecticut for 25 years, the past 10 at Auburn Community Hospital, where he enjoys the atmosphere of a small, community-based facility.

The newest member of the team, OB/GYN Amy Hoeft MacDonald, MD, joined Auburn Community Hospital in July after spending six years in private practice in Rochester. She graduated from SUNY Upstate Medical University and performed her residency at University of Rochester Medical Center.

“Auburn Community Hospital was an attractive destination for me because of the OB/GYN group’s reputation for delivering excellent care,” Dr. MacDonald says. “The hospital is focused on meeting the unique needs of the community, and the recent integration of breast care into the Women’s Health Center is a great example of that. I am excited to be part of a group that is constantly looking to grow and change to deliver better care to patients.”

Comprehensive Maternity Services

A variety of factors make Auburn Community Hospital an outstanding place to have a baby. Welcoming and homey, the Stardust Community Birthing Center In Memory of John and Irene Bisgrove features:

  • A certified lactation consultant on staff
  • A dedicated OB/GYN for performing Caesarean sections
  • All-private labor and delivery and postpartum rooms, with the former featuring whirlpool tubs for use during labor
  • Around-the-clock availability of epidural anesthesia services
  • Experienced, compassionate nurses, many of whom are certified in Advanced Cardiac Life Support, Neonatal Resuscitation, Inpatient Obstetric Nursing or Electronic Fetal Monitoring (EFM)
  • Outpatient breastfeeding support
  • Staff-led childbirth education classes and birthing center tours

The birthing center is pleased to offer EFM, which records fetal heartbeat and uterine contractions throughout labor without a provider having to be present.

“EFM is a newer innovation, and the advantage of it is that OB/GYNs, midwives or nurses can review the monitor data strips remotely and improve communication between patients, nurses and providers. It also provides educational opportunities for all staff,” Dr. Calzolaio says. “If there’s any concern, I can review the information on my phone or the computer in my office and, if necessary, attend to the patient before the nurse notifies me of a problem.”

An all-female midwifery program gives expectant mothers the option of seeing a midwife for certain aspects of prenatal care and receive one-on-one support during labor and delivery.

“Our OB/GYNs and midwives practice as part of one group, and we coordinate closely with them throughout each patient’s pregnancy,” Dr. Calzolaio says. “Patients see both OB/GYNs and midwives throughout pregnancy, and there’s a midwife on call with an OB/GYN every night. Patients’ perceptions of their delivery experience are extremely positive when they receive care from a midwife.”

Care doesn’t end with patients’ discharge.

“We place follow-up phone calls after moms and babies go home to ensure they’re doing well and point them to community resources if they need anything,” says Susan Bobb, RN, Director of Women’s Services at Auburn Community Hospital. “Women love the individual attention they get here that isn’t always possible at bigger facilities.”

Academic-Level Breast Care In a Community Setting

Last summer, Auburn Community Hospital took the first step toward establishing a comprehensive breast program when Ranjna Sharma, MD, FACS, Chief of the Section of Breast Surgery, Medical Director of the Breast Cancer Program and Associate Professor of Surgery in the Department of Surgery at SUNY Upstate Medical University, began holding a clinic and performing procedures at the hospital. Dr. Sharma joined SUNY Upstate Medical University in March 2019 after nearly a decade at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. She visits Auburn Community Hospital every Monday and alternates between seeing patients in clinic and performing surgeries.

“SUNY Upstate Medical Center and Auburn Community Hospital thought it was important to make comprehensive breast services available to more people in the greater Central New York community,” she says. “We started with surgical services in 2019, and we began bringing medical oncology services to Auburn Community Hospital earlier this year. Hopefully, we’ll be able to add radiation oncology in the next two to three years to complete the program.”

Dr. Sharma sees patients with and performs surgeries to remove benign and malignant breast masses. She holds clinic at the Surgical Specialties Clinic located at 77 Nelson St. in Auburn.

“It’s exciting to bring our expertise and multidisciplinary care model to Auburn,” Dr. Sharma says. “Local breast care was something that the medical community and area residents wanted and needed. It’s important for women to have access to high-quality breast services. We’re happy to bring them to this community and look forward to expanding the program in the years to come.”

For more information, call 315-255-7011 or visit auburnhospital.org.

Community Collaboration

In partnership with the Cayuga County Health Department, Auburn Community Hospital recently established the Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies Program, which educates mothers about and helps them access a wide range of community-based services that can benefit them and their babies.

“Through the Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies Program, moms can access doula services, assistance with transportation, breastfeeding support from certified lactation counselors and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children,” says Susan Bobb, RN, Director of Women’s Services at Auburn Community Hospital. “First-time moms can sign up to receive an in-home visit from a nurse, and if children have special healthcare needs, the Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies Program can help them enroll them in early intervention programs.”

A Vision for the Future

The OB/GYNs at Auburn Community Hospital hope to make the newly established Women’s Health Center a destination that women can turn to for wellness education.

“Eventually we would like for the center to offer other services as well,” says Tanya Paul, MD, FACOG, OB/GYN at Auburn Community Hospital. “It would be wonderful for women to visit the center for meditation and yoga, nutrition services and other tools to make better lifestyle choices.”


Loren VanRiper, MD, FACOG, Chief of OB/GYN Services


Ranjna Sharma, MD


Amy MacDonald, MD


Donald Calzolaio, MD, FACOG


Tanya Paul, MD, FACOG


Susan Bobb, RN, Director of Womens Services

Use the “Pause” and Review Your Practice Agreements

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By Marc Beckman, JD

Monday, June 29, 2020

On March 22, Governor Cuomo put New York State on “Pause,” closing all non-essential businesses statewide. As of this writing, upstate New York has just begun its multi-phase reopening.

Physicians have been hit particularly hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. While some serve bravely on the front lines while battling a new and unknown virus without adequate supplies of personal protective equipment, others were suddenly left with empty schedules as patients were unable or unwilling to be seen in the office. Revenue disappeared almost overnight, and overhead and staffing personnel had to be drastically reduced wherever possible.

During this time, physicians saw some of the best qualities of their partners. Many such partners readily acquiesced to numerous and unexpected necessary changes, whether it be adjusting their work schedules to implement telemedicine, or drastically adjusting practice routines and physical office layouts to ensure patients and staff felt as comfortable as possible.


Marc Beckman, JD

Ultimately, many voluntarily took significant pay cuts. However, some partners did not.

As attorneys to physicians, we know that legal agreements are often meant to be signed, put in the file and often never looked at again. When the parties to such agreements all mutually agree to modify their relationship, then the changes sometimes needed for a practice or an individual are easily made. However, when a party does NOT agree to a change, whether it be a clarification to avoid misunderstandings or a substantive change needed because of the pandemic, those agreements may need to be dusted off to determine the relative rights and obligations of the parties.

That is, when the written words really matter, what do they say? It is at that time when practices often regret not having regularly reviewed their legal agreements to ensure they are updated as the practice has changed over time. Here are a few examples.

Shareholders Agreements and Bylaws – This Agreement is between the practice and ALL of its shareholders. For a partnership or a professional limited liability company, shareholder agreements and bylaws are typically bound up into a partnership or operating agreement. Critically, these documents typically define the events, the occurrence of which obligates an individual physician owner to sell their equity and for the practice to be obligated to buy it. Typical events include death, permanent disability and termination of employment. However, other events to address include partial disability, opportunities/obligations to become part-time (including call and coverage obligations), and closure/modification of practice locations. In addition to the obligation to buy/sell, the purchase price must be addressed, whether it be absolute or formulaic.

Here may be the first place to begin your review. The value of an equity interest in a medical practice is likely very different now than it was even just one year ago. Does your document account for this? Also, the tax implications of how the purchase/sale is accomplished must be discussed so all parties understand the intent and ramifications. For this reason, it is not uncommon to create a separate deferred compensation arrangement that is taxed as ordinary income to the departing physician and fully deductible to the practice. Does your agreement keep the departing physician responsible for his/her billing in case of audit or investigation?

Employment Agreements / Member Services Agreements – This is the Agreement between the individual physician and the practice. Typically, this can only be amended with the agreement of both the individual physician and the practice. From the practice perspective, this document should be as flexible as possible. From the individual perspective, this document provides individual protective “rights”, including the conditions of termination and on what notice. Instead of having a compensation formula within the employment agreement, better to make reference to a separate document more readily amended — or even better — a “plan” that can be modified as determined by the managing Board or delegated to an even smaller set of leaders such as a compensation committee.

Finally, commonly overlooked is a discussion about the requisite votes to modify these agreements. Collectively, we are referring to the “rule books” for how decisions are made amongst partners and between the partnership and the individual. Too often, practices discover after the fact that this is more difficult than presumed because of one or two recalcitrant holdouts.

Like we are doing with the coronavirus, take a small pause now and avoid a bigger problem later.

Marc Beckman is a founding member of CCB Law, a boutique law firm focused on providing counsel to physicians and healthcare professionals. He can be reached at 315-477-6244 or mbeckman@ccblaw.com.

Comprehensive, Leading-Edge MRI Services at Magnetic Diagnostic Resources of Central New York

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By Thomas Crocker

Monday, June 29, 2020

Celebrating 35 years as Central New York’s premier provider of MRI services, Magnetic Diagnostic Resources of Central New York (MDR of CNY) draws on the expertise of dozens of fellowship-trained radiologists and a relentless commitment to quality to provide an exceptional experience for patients and referring clinicians.

The prostate MRI patient experience begins with compassion and care and ends with image quality excellence.
Pictured: MRI technologist Paul Mingle

 

Established in 1985, MDR of CNY’s mission is to provide superior, specialized MRI services in a welcoming, warm and patient-focused environment, transforming what often is an apprehensive experience into a notably calm one.

“A variety of factors distinguish our services from others in the region,” says Jacqueline Floyd, ARRT(R)(MR), MBA, CEO of MDR of CNY. “We have nine convenient locations throughout Central New York, and we invested in the latest specialized software to offer organ-specific specialty scans, some of which are not available at other organizations in our region. We think it’s important to offer a host of MRI services to Syracuse and surrounding communities.”

The new wide bore 1.5T GE 450W high-field scanner will enhance breast MRI comfort with a unique range of exclusive, patient-friendly features so you can relax in comfort during the scan. Pictured: MRI technologist Paula Mulholland
 

A Variety of Specialty Scans

MDR of CNY has long been known for providing breast MRI. In certain cases, this modality can complement mammographic findings during diagnostic evaluation, help measure the extent of known breast cancer, assist in assessing eligibility for or response to hormone therapy or chemotherapy, provide additional information about suspicious findings, and screen patients at high risk due to genetic mutations or history of radiation therapy to the chest, according to The American Society of Breast Surgeons Consensus Guideline on Diagnostic and Screening Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Breast. MDR of CNY was an early adopter of dedicated breast coils — components that play a key role in creating images of the breasts by transmitting and receiving radio waves during a breast MRI — and CADstream, a software program that helps radiologists visualize abnormalities and plan interventions in a timely manner. MDR of CNY was also one of the first MRI providers to offer MRI-guided breast biopsy. The American College of Radiology (ACR) has accredited MDR of CNY for nine MRI accreditations and four breast MRI accreditations. The organization maintains its status by seeking reaccreditation every three years.

“MDR of CNY has always focused on ACR accreditation for MRI in general and for subspecialty MRI,” says Scott Buckingham, MD, partner radiologist at MDR of CNY. “ACR accreditation is a hallmark of quality and the most widely recognized guarantee for patients that an outside entity has reviewed the capabilities, experience and training of the professionals who conduct MRI studies.”

In addition to breast MRI, MDR of CNY is a high-volume provider of prostate MRI — which can help determine whether a biopsy is warranted and provide guidance during that procedure, as well as aid prostate cancer staging and radiation therapy planning — and many other specialty MRI services, including:

  • Cardiac MRI
  • Conditional pacemaker MRI
  • Enterography
  • Elastography
  • Fetal MRI
  • Inhance, non-contrast MRA
  • MR arthrography
  • MR urography
  • Spectroscopy
  • Stroke and advanced neurofunctional imaging

Patients who have a specialty scan at MDR of CNY can be confident they will receive an accurate reading of their images, as one of the organization’s key differentiators is its team of 47 board-certified, fellowship-trained partner radiologists from two of Central New York’s largest radiology groups, CRA Medical Imaging and St. Joseph’s Imaging Associates. These radiologists possess subspecialty training in a variety of fields, including breast imaging, neuroradiology, musculoskeletal imaging and body imaging.

“Our team has many years of experience performing subspecialty reads,” Dr. Buckingham says. “That’s important because patients whose images are read by a radiologist with specific training in an MRI subspecialty and high-volume experience tend to enjoy more accurate results.”

The patient experience and excellence in quality starts with an experienced and professional leadership team.

 

Prioritizing Safety

Patient safety is paramount for MDR of CNY, which is why its technologists and other members of the team take all necessary steps to safeguard patients before conducting scans. Those steps include verifying that patients’ medical implants are MRI compatible, analyzing records of patients’ previous studies and evaluating kidney function, as the use of a gadolinium-based contrast agent during an MRI can cause problems for certain patients, such as those with diabetes or chronic kidney disease. When appropriate, the MDR of CNY team uses a handheld device called i-STAT to conduct a point-of-care blood analysis that can reveal kidney function.

“Patients can undergo testing with i-STAT in the office at the time of the scan rather than having lab work at a different facility,” Dr. Buckingham says. “That’s a much more convenient way of determining whether a patient is suitable to receive a contrast agent because it doesn’t require separate office visits and eliminates unnecessary cancellation of studies.”

If a patient needs an MR angiogram but has suboptimal kidney function, the MDR of CNY team can perform his or her study using Inhance, a technique that allows technologists to capture images of the renal arteries without using a contrast agent.

Highly trained radiologists at MDR of CNY are board certified with the American Board of Radiology and
considered experts in their field. Pictured: MRI technologist Stephanie Labulis and radiologist David Wang, MD

Convenient and Compassionate

Providing a seamless, one-phone-call scheduling experience for referring providers is a point of pride for MDR of CNY, as is the organization’s ability to accommodate urgent imaging requests and its commitment to scheduling appointments within a two-week timeframe. When needed, MDR of CNY can accommodate STAT requests.

When patients arrive at one of MDR of CNY’s nine locations, they encounter an atmosphere designed to allay any anxiety they may feel about undergoing an MRI. The staff sets the tone.

“Patients have never met a kinder or more compassionate staff,” Floyd says. “Our technologists truly understand how to calm and reassure patients. If a patient is feeling exceptionally anxious, we may give him or her the option to visit the office a day or two before the appointment to talk with our staff about the scan and observe the machine. Our experienced technologists ensure that the patient feels safe and comfortable and stay in voice contact throughout each exam.”

For patients with claustrophobia, a wide-bore MRI scanner and an open unit are available at neighboring locations on Brittonfield Parkway in East Syracuse.

“We do what is best for our patients,” Floyd says. “Our technologists treat every patient with compassion and professionalism, which is why we routinely receive comments in our patient satisfaction surveys singing their praises.”

For more information, visit mdrcny.com. Click on “Referring Physicians” to request an appointment for a patient or call 315-454-4810, press 1.

Timely Communication

Swift communication with referring providers and seamless transmission of scan results is a priority for Magnetic Diagnostic Resources of Central New York. That is why the organization, its partner radiology groups CRA Medical Imaging and St. Joseph’s Imaging Associates, and their associated health systems use a shared picture archiving and communication system. Referring providers receive nonurgent image reports within 24 hours. Providers receive urgent results as soon as a radiologist finishes reading the images.