From waiting room to operating room.

• Author: LUSKY, MARK
• Position: Brief Article

Pulling the Strings

Q: What Denver-based organizations together represent more than 250,000 healthcare professionals nationwide involved in treating people -- and, in one case, their pets?

A: MGMA, ACVIM, AORN.

If none of these acronyms ring a bell, don't worry -- you're not alone. While Colorado is home to three of the country's most important healthcare organizations, few locals are aware of them.

Englewood-based Medical Group Management Association, MGMA, with 209,000 physicians, is the nation's most prominent medical group practice organization. The Lakewood-based American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine, ACVIM, is the only U.S. board certification group for veterinarians specializing in oncology, neurology, internal medicine and cardiology, with 1,100-plus members.

Denver's Association of periOperative Registered Nurses (AORN) represents 43,000 registered nurses across the country, working in hospital surgical departments, day-surgery units, clinics and physicians' offices. ("Perioperative" means "in the operating room.")

All three are likely to gain higher profiles in the new millennium, as people and pet care issues become more prominent. Dr. William F. Jessee, Medical Group Management Association president and CEO, ranks patient safety high on his healthcare agenda. Jessee, who joined MGMA last summer, said it's important to "analyze system failures, then change the system," instead of placing blame and filing lawsuits.

Jessee pointed out that there's a "lot of attention on the inpatient side. I took the position that no one (was) paying much attention to the ambulatory side." Jessee is targeting better research along with member education and communication to resolve problems in those ambulatory settings. "Physicians ... sometimes get lulled into a false sense of complacency," he said. In a member survey, lost test results and...