• Anti-Microbial Stewardship: The Hospital Opportunity, webinar, July 16, 3 p.m.-4 p.m. the American Hospital Association’s Physician Leadership Forum addresses appropriate antimicrobial stewardship with Arjun Srinivasan, MD, FSHEA, CAPT USPHS, Associate Director for Healthcare Associated Infection Prevention Programs, and Medical Director, Get Smart for Healthcare, Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He will present an overview of the clinical evidence supporting antimicrobial stewardship programs and the CDC’s core elements in developing a hospital antimicrobial stewardship program. Click here to register. There is no charge for participation.  Questions please contact Dan Paloski or (312) 422-2914. 

• Asheville area providers are invited to the Omni Grove Park Inn on Thursday, July 17, at 6 p.m. to hear Dr. Dan Cannon of Cannon Family Health discuss his experiences with athenahealth and how their integrated suite of EHR, practice management and care coordination services has helped him achieve financial health and clinical control. athenahealth is a NCMS Gold Level Partner. RSVP by fax’ing the registration form to 888.864.4427.

• Five in-person instructor-led NCTracks training courses for providers will be offered in July at the CSC facility in Raleigh.  Each course includes hands-on training and will be limited to 45 participants per course.
  • Monday, July 21 – 9:30 a.m. to 12 p.m. – Prior Approval Institutional Prior Approval submission training for Institutional providers. This course shows authorized users how to electronically submit and inquire about prior approvals for different kinds of medical services.
  • Monday, July 21 – 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. – Submitting an Institutional Claim Focuses on how to submit an Institutional claim. At the end of training, providers will be able to enter an Institutional claim, save a draft claim, use the Claims Draft Search tool, submit a claim and view the results of a claim submission.
  • Thursday, July 24 – 9:30 a.m. to 12 p.m. – Prior Approval Medical (Professional) Prior Approval submission training for Medical (Professional) providers. This course shows authorized users how to electronically submit and inquire about prior approvals for different kinds of medical services.
  • Thursday, July 24 – 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. – Submitting a Professional Claim Focuses on how to submit a Professional Claim. At the end of training, providers will be able to enter a Professional claim, save a Draft claim, use the Claims Draft Search tool, submit a claim, and view the results of a claim submission.
  • Thursday, July 31 – 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. – Recipient Eligibility Verification Providers learn to use the Eligibility Verification System (EVS), which provides information regarding a recipient’s eligibility for services in real time. At the end of training, providers will be able to submit an Individual Recipient Eligibility Inquiry, submit a Batch Eligibility Inquiry, and view an Eligibility Response.

Register for the courses in SkillPort, the NCTracks Learning Management System. Logon to the secure NCTracks Provider Portal and click Provider Training to access SkillPort. Open the folder labeled Provider Computer-Based Training (CBT) and Instructor Led Training (ILT). The courses can be found in the sub-folder labeled ILTs: On-site. (Refer to the Provider Training page of the public Provider Portal for specific instructions on how to use SkillPort.)

• The 2014 Carolinas COPD Symposium will be held July 23, 2014, at the Bonnie E. Cone Center, UNC Charlotte Campus, Charlotte, NC. This symposium is jointly sponsored by Duke University School of Medicine and NC COPD Taskforce. For more information and to register, click here.

• Cloud-Based Services for Orthopedic Practices. This webinar will be held on Wednesday, August 6th, 12:15 p.m. ET and will be hosted by athenahealth expert Patrick Scranton and Dr. Deanna Boyette of Boyette Orthopedics and Sports Medicine.  It will focus on the specific needs of orthopedic practices in finding the right health IT option among traditional software vendors. Register to learn more.

• Registration is now open for NCHICA’s 20th Annual Conference & Exhibition, scheduled for October 5-8, 2014 at the Grandover Resort in Greensboro, NC. Learn about the latest developments and best practices in healthcare IT and network with your peers. The theme of this year’s conference is 20 Years of Health Information Sharing: Realizing the Art of the Possible, and the agenda is packed with over 50 speakers, 3 plenary sessions and 27 breakout sessions on policy, clinical and technology topics. For further details, click here. Early rates are good through August 31, so please register early!

• The 19th Annual NC Workers’ Compensation Educational Conference will be held Oct. 8-10 at the Raleigh Convention Center. The North Carolina Medical Society assisted with the conference program, which is designed to educate anyone who participates in the North Carolina workers’ compensation system and will examine the current rules, procedures, policies and forms. Registration fees increase beginning Aug. 15, so register now.

• You are in luck if you couldn’t make it to the IMQ-PACE Stepping Up to Leadership conference in San Diego this spring. Selected courses from Stepping Up to Leadership are now available online at IMQ Online Education!  All content is available for AMA PRA Category 1 Credit^TM—take this opportunity to earn CME credit at a time and place that’s convenient for you.

  Stepping Up to Leadership courses cover a variety of important skills for successfully running a medical staff, particularly issues of communication, problem-solving and improving outcomes for patients and staff.  Choose from Nancy Dickey, MD’s keynote presentation, Successful Leadership: What It Really Takes, Donald David, MD on The Role of the Physician In Patient Safety, Carol Havens, MD on Using CME as an Organizational Improvement Tool, and a 2014 Legal Update by Greg Abrams, Esq. covering hot medico-legal topics. To browse the full IMQ Online Education catalog, visit http://imq.inreachce.com/.

• The National Institutes of Health’s National Institute on Drug Abuse is offering two free, interactive, online CME activities about responsible opioid prescribing practices, and best practices for assessing, preventing, and addressing prescription opioid abuse. In these CMEs, NIDA encourages clinicians to use its NIDAMED resources which are specially designed for use in clinical practice to assess patients’ drug use and possible referral to drug treatment. Click here to learn more about the CMEs.