Leadership Message

Making up for Lost Ground By Adam Low, CEO

These bright, sunny days of summer bring into contrast the dreary days of just one year ago. From a business perspective, those were some dark times, which many of you knew or sensed from the confusion and lower patient volume. It cannot be said often enough how much we appreciate the hard work of the SENTA team members during this time.

The good news now is that we are now starting to see a rebound to pre-COVID patient visits. Our performance in the allergy side is strong—based on our spring allergy season, which is up 15 percent in patient visits. In ENT, we are beginning to see more visits as well (up 5 percent this quarter compared to Q1 2021).

We cannot undo 2020, but we have learned from it. Those lessons in efficiency, access and delivering the highest quality of care not only served us well last year but will allow us to build an even stronger foundation for the future.

As we reach the halfway point of the year, it’s nice to see that we have momentum going. So thank you for your many contributions to that—and enjoy a wonderful, safe 4th of July holiday weekend.

Operations SENTer

SENTA Welcomes Two New Practice Administrators

Trenyce Brewer and Aisha Walker

Trenyce Brewer has joined Piedmont ENT as Practice Administrator. She has recently wrapped up her responsibilities as Practice Administrator for Dermatology Affiliates in Atlanta, Georgia, where she supported nine providers and a staff of 52. Trenyce brings more than 15 years of healthcare industry experience and practice management to Piedmont ENT.

Aisha Walker will be joining NW ENT as Practice Administrator on June 28, 2021, after she completes her relocation from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where she served as operations manager at Advocate Aurora Healthcare. She led multisite business operations, including general surgery, internal medicine, family practice, pediatrics, urgent care, OB/GYN, pain management and endocrinology, supporting 19 physicians and more than 60 team members.

Please welcome both to the SENTA team.

Brevium Installation Completed at Atlanta Allergy & Asthma By Melissa Grooms, Integrations Director

On June 14, the Brevium installation at Atlanta Allergy & Asthma was completed. Brevium, an automated reactivation/recall system to support the existing electronic medical records (EMR), is now active at Piedmont ENT and Atlanta Allergy. The Brevium system pulls information from the EMR every night to identify patients who are due for care because of an earlier missed or cancelled appointment. The system then creates either an automated phone call, text or email reminder to that patient, saving staff members considerable time and catching more patients who might otherwise be lost to follow-up or rescheduling.

While we had anticipated an earlier installation, we found that we had to build a customer interface for the eCW system, which delayed the go-live by about two weeks. Stay tuned as we firm up plans to expand Brevium to additional SENTA sites.

In other news, the anticipated Phreesia launch for Piedmont has been rescheduled for about July 26. The technical team has been working on the implementation process, but the final installation involves a third-party vendor with whom we’re negotiating final details.

Phreesia is a customized patient intake software. Both of these systems require integration with our electronic medical records system, so the IT and operations teams approach these implementations thoughtfully and methodically, making sure every detail is tested before bringing the system live. We are excited to see the efficiencies and support these tools will bring to our teams.

Building Boom Impacts SENTA Plans (Just a Bit) By Scott McCutcheon, MHA, Executive Director, Allergy Division

Last month, we reported that we anticipated completing the installation of negative pressure rooms throughout the Atlanta Allergy & Asthma locations. The plan was to have all offices outfitted with this technology by this time, but due to an unexpected shortage of material, we have not been able to complete all offices. Currently, the rooms are installed and operational at our Kennestone, Lawrenceville, Snellville and Rome office locations. We will continue installation of these rooms, and the schedule changes week to week due to the supply of needed material. We will continue to update you on the status as more information becomes available.

HR SENTer

Attracting the Best Candidates

In our efforts to attract the highest quality co-workers for our current workforce, SENTA has partnered with Talentcare, which is helping us develop a recruitment campaign. Those of us who work with SENTA know what makes it special, but how do we communicate that effectively to potential new hires?

The Talentcare team will be sending out a survey to your email shortly; the survey will take you just 5 to10 minutes to complete. Your responses will only be used by Talentcare in brand development, and individual answers will not be shared with anyone internal to our organization. Please feel free to be honest and open in answering these questions.

Jaclynn Fuller of Talentcare explains that responses to these surveys—from every individual and every department—ensure that the branding ultimately used is authentic and truly representational. She also encourages respondents to be forthcoming. “A negative to one person is not necessarily a negative to someone else. For example, one person may not like traveling from office to office, but another person may like that environment,” she says. “Knowing these factors helps us target those candidates who may love a certain environment, leading to employees who will stay longer and be happier.”

Talentcare will develop an employer brand, which will complement, not replace, recruiting efforts ongoing now. Employment notices in the future will link back or connect to a section of the website that showcases what it’s like to work for SENTA and affiliated practices. “For potential employees who are doing their research, we want to make sure that they are seeing this information,” Fuller says.

Finally, Fuller emphasizes two points: the more engagement from employees in every facet of SENTA practices, the more authentic the profile becomes, and the responses are anonymous. Talentcare may report trend data, but no individual data will be shared.

Later on, some of you may also be selected to be a member of a focus group that will drill down more into some of the feedback. We want to thank you in advance for your participation, as your feedback will help us create the most meaningful and honest representation of the company.

Communications SENTer

Email Conversions Ongoing—and No, Your Email Is Not Changing By Frank Hutchison, VP of Information Technology

As staff members at various SENTA and affiliated practice offices have been logging in to their emails, they may have noticed very subtle differences. We have methodically been merging all the different practices’ email accounts so that we can “see” each other in our email address books as we become one tenant.

Already, Atlanta Allergy & Asthma and Piedmont ENT have been integrated into this single tenant, and on June 24, the SENTA main office was added. On Friday, July 2, ENT of South Georgia will be converted, and on Friday, July 9, Northwest ENT emails will be switched.

What’s different? Most users will see no drastic changes. Your email address will not change, but you’ll be able to find other SENTA team members more easily, and as a result of all being on the same platform, offices can use the meeting and chat functions of Microsoft Teams, for example.

As an added level of security, those who do not currently use multifactor authentication may need to add that; IT will help walk employees through that process as it becomes necessary. The immediate goal is to complete the conversions as seamlessly as possible (which is why they are occurring on Friday evenings and over the weekends).

Finally, this infrastructure change will help SENTA integrate new practice partners into the system more readily. Once this initial conversion is complete, it will be a simpler process to incorporate new team members as SENTA grows!

Making a Difference

These patient testimonials and reviews are wonderful affirmations of how SENTA practices impact patients’ lives.

A recent visitor to Atlanta Allergy & Asthma in Alpharetta wrote the following (edited for length and clarity).

“I was very sick for most of the year with some mystery illness; I went to several doctors with varied specialties, and all of them told me it was asthma/allergies despite my symptoms not responding to any asthma/allergy treatment.

“I waited to see an allergist because I didn't know what I had and didn't want to risk spreading it while COVID-19 was raging in my community. The doctor here was the first to understand that I know my body and how my allergy symptoms manifest and LISTENED to me when I said that what I experienced this year was new and different and not normal. The doctor took an extensive history, did some tests, discussed all my symptoms, and spent a large amount of time educating me on my condition. This doctor was THOROUGH! I cannot recommend this place enough: they listened to me, they addressed my concerns and they educated me on my new food allergy diagnosis. They even trained me how to use my new EpiPen before I left the building.”

What Are Patients Saying About the Staff at NW ENT?

Here are just some of the comments that patients left recently.

• Everyone there was very nice and accommodating.

• Surgical staff is wonderful.

• Everyone was extremely professional and super kind.

• Seems they enjoy their jobs, greet you with a smile.

• Everyone from front desk to nurse in the back were very friendly and helpful.

• NW ENT's staff is polite, friendly and professional. They are like a ray of sunshine!

• From the front desk to check out, all of the staff was very friendly and it was appreciated!

• Very professional, excellent customer services.

• Always informed and helpful!

Shout Out

Audiologist Jenny Carroll at ENT of South Georgia received a 5-star review from a recent patient.

Month at a Glance

Friday, July 2
• Email conversion: ENT of South Georgia

Monday, July 5
• Closed in observance of July 4

Friday, July 9
• Email conversion: Northwest ENT

Monday, July 26
• Anticipated Phreesia launch: Piedmont ENT

Tuesday, August 3
• Anticipated in-office surgeries with moderate sedation go-live: Piedmont ENT

Practice Spotlight

Atlanta Allergy & Asthma’s Research Department—Ongoing Trials Open to SENTA Patients

(l-r): Martha Coggins, Donna Bazelmans and Janet Plumley

Medical research leads to medications and therapies that can change people’s lives. Before products and treatments can be brought to market, they undergo extensive clinical trials, like the ones that the Atlanta Allergy & Asthma (AA&A) research department has been conducting for more than 40 years.

Some of today’s most widely used allergy medications began in clinical research studies at AA&A. Over the past several years, two of the offices have participated in the clinical trials that led to U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of the first treatment for peanut allergy. This therapy, Palforzia, is now available to peanut-allergic patients aged 4-17. The research team is made up of three tenured researchers—Donna Bazelmans, BS; Martha Coggins, EMT, CCRC; and Janet Plumley, LPN, CCRC—and two principal investigators, Stanley Fineman, MD, and Frank McCafferty, MD. They conduct trials at two research facilities: one in Marietta and the other in Stockbridge.

Patients taking part in trials are closely monitored and receive the highest caliber of care. Research studies are closely monitored by the FDA and both regional and national Institutional Review Boards to ensure the safety and rights of all participants. Research is conducted in the areas of asthma, allergic rhinitis, skin allergy, food allergy, chronic cough, urticaria and hereditary angioedema.

If you or anyone you know is interested in learning more about the research opportunities, please contact AA&A Research by phone at 770.592.4210. It is not necessary to be a patient of Atlanta Allergy & Asthma to participate. Anyone who is interested in assisting in the development of new therapies may be a candidate for a research study. All SENTA Partner practices, patients and staff, may be a candidate for current or upcoming trials.

A list of current research studies and qualifications is available on the AA&A website.

Practitioner Spotlight

Atlanta Allergy & Asthma’s Dr. Stanley Fineman Receives Prestigious Awards

Stanley M. Fineman, MD, was chosen as the 2020 recipient of the Gold Headed Cane Award by the American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (ACAAI). This award for professional achievement is the most prestigious award the ACAAI offers. The award was presented to him in a virtual meeting. Dr. Fineman is a physician at Atlanta Allergy & Asthma’s Kennestone and East Cobb offices.

The tradition of the Gold Headed Cane dates back to the 1600s when Dr. John Radcliffe, the personal physician to King William III, began the ritual of “passing the cane” to a successor who was considered the greatest English physician at the time. The concept is still used today by many medical schools and specialty societies to recognize a physician who symbolizes the pursuit of the highest standards of scientific excellence and integrity.

“Being an active participant in the ACAAI has been both professionally and personally rewarding. I am humbled to receive this recognition from such a distinguished group of colleagues,” Dr. Fineman says. He has been an active member of the ACAAI, including serving on a number of task forces and committees since joining in 1982. He served as ACAAI president in 2011-2012, and currently he is the editor in chief of Allergy Watch as well as a co-host for the podcast Allergy Talk.

Tell Us What You Think

We Would Love to Hear From You

Do you have comments on this newsletter or ideas for the next issue? Email Tatiana at [email protected].

Your SENTA Communiqué Archives

May 2021

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