Welcome New Providers

McLaren Bay Regions’ Stroke Program has received the American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines^® – Stroke GoldPlus quality achievement award for its commitment to ensuring stroke patients receive the most appropriate treatment according to nationally recognized, research-based guidelines, ultimately leading to more lives saved and reduced disability.

Stroke is the fifth most common cause of death in the U.S. and a leading cause of disability. A stroke occurs when a blood vessel that carries oxygen and nutrients to the brain is either blocked by a clot or bursts. When that happens, part of the brain cannot get the blood and oxygen it needs, so brain cells die. Early stroke detection and treatment are key to improving survival, minimizing disability and accelerating recovery times.

Get With The Guidelines puts the expertise of the American Heart Association and American Stroke Association to work for hospitals nationwide, helping to ensure patient care is aligned with the latest evidence and research-based guidelines. Get With The Guidelines^® – Stroke is an in-hospital program for improving stroke care by promoting consistent adherence to these guidelines, which can minimize the long-term effects of a stroke and even prevent death.

“McLaren Bay Region is committed to improving patient care by adhering to the latest treatment guidelines,” stated Khalil Nasrallah, MD, Medical Director of the Stroke Program. “Get With The Guidelines makes it easier for our teams to put proven knowledge and guidelines to work on a daily basis, which studies show can help improve patients' recovery. The end goal is to ensure more people in Bay City can experience longer, healthier lives.”

Each year, program participants qualify for the award by demonstrating how their organization has committed to providing quality care for stroke patients. In addition to following treatment guidelines, Get With The Guidelines participants also educate patients to help them manage their health and recovery at home.

McLaren Bay Region was also recognized with the American Heart Association’s Target: Stroke^SM Elite/Honor Roll award. To qualify for this recognition, hospitals must meet specific criteria that reduces the time between an eligible patient’s arrival at the hospital and treatment with the clot-buster alteplase.

In addition, McLaren Bay Region received the American Heart Association’s Target: Type 2 Diabetes Honor Roll award. This award aims to ensure patients with Type 2 diabetes, who might be at higher risk for complications, receive the most up-to-date, evidence-based care when hospitalized due to stroke.

McLaren Bay Region also met specific scientific guidelines as a Primary Stroke Center, featuring a comprehensive system for rapid diagnosis and treatment of stroke patients admitted to the emergency department.

Congratulations to the entire McLaren Bay Region Stroke Team for these prestigious awards!

Congratulations to M. Adam Kremer, MD, neurosurgeon at McLaren Bay Region, McLaren Bay Special Care and McLaren Central Michigan, for being elected as Regional Director of Michigan State Medical Society, Region 7, which includes the counties of Arenac, Bay, Clare, Gladwin, Gratiot, Isabella, Midland and Saginaw.

Dr. Kremer also serves as Vice Chairman of the Neurosciences Department on the McLaren Bay Region Medical Staff.

Effective July 28th, 2023, the McLaren Bay Region Pain Management Center, located at 4175 N. Euclid, will be closing. The last day caring for patients will be July 26th, 2023.

Please be assured we are committed to maintaining continuity of care for you. We are expecting little to no interruption in patient experience as all existing patients will be referred to our McLaren Bay Region Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation clinic. If required treatment options are unavailable at this clinic, patients will be referred to other local providers.

Their office contact information is below:

Venkata Etha, MD - Physiatry

McLaren Bay Region Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation

3190 E Midland Rd

Bay City, MI 48706

Phone: (989) 667-6650

Fax: (989) 667-6660 

Should you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact McLaren Bay Region Pain Management Center prior to July 28th, 2023 at (989) 667-3350. If you require assistance with medical records, please call the McLaren Bay Region Medical Records department at (989) 894-3873.

We thank you for entrusting McLaren for all your health care needs. 

McLaren Bay Region is anticipating The Joint Commission anytime around January 2024. In an effort to be survey ready, we participated in a MOCK survey. Based on the feedback we received, we will highlight a different topic each month that identifies areas needing improvement specific to provider issues.

July Focus Topic: Operative Reports and H&P’s

• Operative Reports or an immediate post op note must be available immediately following the procedure. One of these reports must be completed prior to the patient transferring to PACU (or the next level of care) unless the provider is with the patient.

• History and Physical updates must be completed AFTER the patient is registered for their procedure. When using an office H&P within the 30 days prior to a scheduled surgery, an update is required on the day of the procedure to indicate you have seen and evaluated the patient and there are no changes. The update must be done after they register the day of the procedure.

• RC.01.03.01 EP3: The hospital records the patient's medical history and physical examination, including updates, in the medical record within 24 hours after registration or inpatient admission but prior to surgery or a procedure requiring anesthesia services.

We have now release Practitioner 8.5.0 for Android. The update has been released as a phased rollout starting today.

Changes include:

• Added a permission request for Android 13 devices to enable the sending of notifications.
• Implemented a feature that redirects inactive users back to the login screen if they have unauthorized access.
• Improved the presentation of images in a message thread by placing them within their own conversation bubble, resulting in enhanced visibility and messaging experience.
• Adjusted the spacing within a conversation thread to achieve a more consistent and uniform appearance.
• Fix3ed a problem where forwarding a message prevented the user from typing within the text field.
• Resolved an error where the application would crash when attempting to add staff to a schedule.
• Addressed an issue where forwarding multiple messages would retain the previous recipient within the search field.
• Other changes in this release are internal and do not affect the user experience. As such, users will see no change in functionality.

Please click HERE for a printable version of this announcement.

With the summer season in full swing, we would like to remind all surgeons and their schedulers to release surgery block time when known that the provider will not be using (such as conference, vacation, etc.). Block times can be released, and available open times can be requested though the scheduling tool, iQueue for Operating Rooms.

Please see below for the various tip sheets. *Please note you will need to be logged into iQueue in order to access these tip sheets.

• Clinic Scheduler Scheduling Overview
• Clinic Scheduler Managing the Surgeon Inbox
• Clinic Scheduler Requesting Into Open Time in the OR
• Clinic Scheduler Scheduling - Calendar
• Clinic Scheduler How to Release Block Time  

If you have new staff needing access to iQueue for Operating Rooms or with any questions, please contact Gina Ora, Physician Liaison, at [email protected] or (989) 894-3926.

Your IT Support teams are excited to announce a NEW Friendly Service Desk Phone Number that is easy to remember!

In the near future, all current Service Desk phone numbers will be phased out and replaced with the 844-MHC-TECH line noted below. The IT Service Desk phone number on the desktop and in ServiceNow has been updated. Please feel free to browse our other options for obtaining support as displayed on the flyer.

(844) MHC-TECH or (844) 642-8324

Please click HERE for a printable copy of the message below.

Speech & Language Pathology Inpatient Acute Hospital Referrals

There are a wide variety of patients who could benefit from a Speech-Language consult. Please consider an SLP order for:

• Any patient with a history of Parkinson's disease
• Bedside swallow evaluation for dysphagia, history of dysphagia, oral motor impairment, poor dentition, unexplained weight loss or new cervical surgeries
• Dysarthria, oral apraxia, apraxia of speech, aphasia
• Any patient with M.S., A.LS., C.P., or Huntington's Disease
• Post Craniotomies

Questions: Call (989) 894-3167 or (989) 894-3143

Please click HERE for the Cardiovascular Symposium flyer below.

We are asking all of our healthcare partners to inform us of any changes within your office including provider status, address, phone number, fax number or other pertinent information. This is key to ensuring that offices are getting all necessary communications regarding patient care and hospital updates.

Please send any changes to Sheri Kelley, Patient Access Supervisor, at [email protected] or call (810) 600-7915.

For hospital credentialed provider offices, please ALSO send changes to Janet Matuszewski, Regional Manager of Medical Staff, at [email protected].

MARK YOUR CALENDARS:

Brought to you by Laura Love

July 28: American Red Cross Blood Drive; 10:00 a.m. – 3:45 p.m. at McLaren Bay Region Lincoln Center; 820 S. Lincoln Street, Bay City, 48708; for information or appointment, visit RedCrossBlood.org (sponsor code: McLaren BC) or call 1-800-RED CROSS (1-800-733-2767); Free

For more information on upcoming community health events, click HERE.

McLaren Bay Region | mclaren.org/bayregion