Wrapping up 2015...and Happy New Year 2016 from CFA!

All-in-all, 2015 was a busy year for CFA, although client work seemed to get in the way of blogging frequency.  One of our new year’s resolutions will certainly be to blog more often in 2016.  

This is our way of sharing our thoughts with readers, on issues, trends and ideas, and hopefully, getting reader feedback on what we have written. 

Anyone who either reads or writes a blog knows first-hand that it is challenging enough to come up with blog-worthy ideas, but even more difficult to write one on schedule that is truly worthy of posting in the blog-o-sphere.  We pledge to search for truly worthy material for next year’s blogs that can inform, provoke inspiration, and perhaps even entertain.  While this is a serious business we are all in, it does have its lighter side.  Oh, and we also pledge to meet our blog schedule; on-time, ready to roll, and with a smile on our face.  Yes, that can happen!

In the field of cardiovascular services, while there were the usual technological innovations, research findings and clinical progress made this past last year, most did not seem too monumental, merely the typical year’s progression.  OK, there was the approval of PCSK9 inhibitors and controversy over the cost, the SPRINT study and its implications, lots of mergers and acquisitions in the cardiovascular business world…so maybe not a typical year.  In California, perhaps the biggest news was the beginning of the process which finally allows hospitals with licensed catheterization laboratories to apply for certification to provide PCI without on-site surgery.  This has been a long-time coming and will reshape some markets in California; allowing select hospitals to significantly increase their level of a critical service to the local population and potentially allowing other hospitals with low-volume cardiac surgery programs to divest this service.  This change can be beneficial for both the local community and the industry in general; a real win-win we don’t achieve every day.  We are eager to see how this situation unfolds across the State.

Last year, we blogged about what it means to be a high-value physician; opined that the CMS Orthopedic Bundle implies that a similar project for cardiac surgery can’t be far behind; on consolidation and right-sizing services; and on legal issues relating to health, wellness and compliance.  Next year, we hope to select topics of interest and present more practical conclusions and implications for our readers.  The web is a big place with almost unlimited information available (if you know where to look and can sort the wheat from the chaff), yet it is incumbent upon us as consultants who blog to go beyond the simple presentation of facts and figures and educate as well.  We won’t hesitate to tell you what we think and why we think it is important.  We’re just saying.

All of us at CFA want to wish you all the best in the New Year.  And if we can be of service to you and your colleagues next year, please give us a call.  If it is a calm day and the sailboat has to stay in the dock, we will be here!