About Maria Todd

"Maria inspires a corporate culture that is creative, practical, accountable, solutions-oriented and fosters sustaining and disruptive innovation, and she looks for a similar ilk in the clients she accepts as a consultant and the team that surrounds her."

Maria Todd is an award-winning speaker, corporate trainer, and the author of 9 best-selling professional reference books for health administrators and medical tourism industry professionals. She is a highly sought after domain expert and speaker at hospitals, universities, government strategy sessions, and international industry conferences, worldwide.  Maria enjoys speaking to organizations and senior management and government agencies on topics surrounding healthcare business operations, reimbursement, medical staff leadership, service line strategy, and market growth blended with the commitment to meet the vision of the organization.

She generously shares her hands-on practical experience in healthcare management and health travel (medical tourism) in her recently released medical tourism titles, The Handbook of Medical Tourism Program Development, and the Medical Tourism Facilitator's Handbook (2012, Productivity Press, New York).  Her other books on managed care contracting and physician employment contracting, both now in 2nd edition, have enjoyed high acclaim, and her book on integrated health delivery systems has been the organizational and operational "bible" for many IPAs, PHOs, MSOs, and ACOs.

These books, together with her expertise is in the realm of leadership development, strategic planning, financial turn-around projects, marketing, and small business development set her apart from every other trainer, speaker and consultant in the healthcare industry when it comes to the intersection of managed care, health travel, medical tourism, and expatriate group health benefit design.  Her "See one, Do one, Teach Many" philosophy is world renowned.

 

More than 750,000 physicians, and over 54,000 independent and chain pharmacies are under contract together with home health nurses, air and ground ambulance, dialysis, lab, imaging, vision, hearing, dental, alternative and complementary medicine, behavioral health, chiropractic, and many other ancillary service providers.

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Maria has a natural ability when it comes to bringing together hospitals, doctors, Ministries of Health, Tourism, Economic Development, insurers, employers, hotels, airport authorities, and case managers to work together to develop complex infrastructure and promote an image of safe, high-quality healthcare to establish a “brand” for the healthcare destination worldwide. Her unique background in travel, surgical nursing, insurance and healthcare business administration lends perspective rarely found in a project manager.

Maria is pictured with Dr. Meong-Geun Song discussing clinical outcome comparisons of heart valve transplants and CARVAR procedures in the SICU at Konkuk University Medical Center, Seoul, South Korea. Dr Song is the pioneer of the CARVAR procedure. Konkuk established a cardiac center named after Song, and he has been one of the main driving forces to put the school on the international medicine scene.

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Maria is pictured at the podium in Johannesburg, South Africa delivering a Comparative Analysis and Contrast of International Hospital Accreditation Programs at the Inaugural South African Health Tourism Congress. The Congress was supported by the patronage of the South African Ministry of Health and Mpumalanga Tourism Board to prepare for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Both Maria and Mercury Healthcare's Chief Medical Officer, Dr Michael J Silvers, were invited to present. Following the Congress, the two were hosted on Safari in Kruger National Park.

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CMS won't pay for these after October 1, 2008 if they were not Present On Admission (POA)

1.Foreign Object Retained After Surgery
2.Air Embolism
3.Blood Incompatibility
4.Stage III and IV Pressure Ulcers
5.Falls and Trauma
6.Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infection
7.Vascular Catheter-Associated Infection
8.Surgical Site Infection (Mediastinitis) after Coronary Artery Bypass Graft
9.Surgical Site Infections Following Certain Elective Procedures, including

Certain Orthopedic Surgeries, and

Bariatric Surgery

10.Certain Manifestations of Poor Control of Blood Sugar Levels
11.Deep Vein Thrombosis or Pulmonary Embolism Following:Total Knee Replacement, and Hip Replacement

 

Selected National Guidelines and Evidence for Prevention

The following links will take you to resources available on the Internet that describe the related national guidelines, and selected resources that describe prevention strategies. We will keep this site updated as the evidence emerges and invite you to suggest additional resources.

Foreign Object Retained After Surgery
Evidence-Based Guidelines: Safe Practices for Better Healthcare: A Consensus Report. Summary. The National Quality Forum. August 2003. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD.
Making Health Care Safer: A Critical Analysis of Patient Safety Practices. Evidence Report/Technology Assessment, No. 43. AHRQ Publication No. 01-E058, July 2001. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD. 
Cedars-Sinai O.R. - Elimination of Retained Foreign Object Task Force

Air Embolism
Evidence-Based Guidelines: Safe Practices for Better Healthcare: A Consensus Report. Summary. The National Quality Forum. August 2003. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD. 
Mirski, Marek A. M.D., Ph.D; Lele, Abhijit Vijay M.D; Fitzsimmons, Lunei M.D.; Toung, Thomas J. K. M.D. Diagnosis and Treatment of Vascular Air Embolism. Anesthesiology. 106(1):164-177, January 2007.

Blood Incompatibility
Evidence-Based Guidelines: Safe Practices for Better Healthcare: A Consensus Report. Summary. The National Quality Forum. August 2003. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD. 
Collette Bishop Hendler, RN, MS, CCRN A Perfect Match: Preventing Blood Incompatibility Errors.

Stage III and IV Pressure Ulcers
Evidence-Based Guidelines:Pressure Ulcers in Adults: Prediction and Prevention. AHCPR Publication No. 92-0047, May 1992. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD

Falls and Trauma
Evidence-Based Guidelines: Safe Practices for Better Healthcare: A Consensus Report. Summary. The National Quality Forum. August 2003. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD.

Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infection
Evidence-Based Guidelines: Guideline for Prevention of Catheter-associated Urinary Tract Infections. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. February 1981. Atlanta, GA.

Vascular Catheter-Associated Infection
Evidence-Based Guidelines: Guidelines for the Prevention of Intravascular Catheter-Related Infections, 2002. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. September 2005. Atlanta, GA.

Surgical Site Infection (Mediastinitis) after Coronary Artery Bypass Graft
Evidence-Based Guidelines: Guideline for the Prevention of Surgical Site Infection, 1999. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. October 2005. Atlanta, GA.

Deep Vein Thrombosis or Pulmonary Embolism Following: Total Knee Replacement, and Hip Replacement
Evidence-Based Guidelines: Safe Practices for Better Healthcare: A Consensus Report. Summary. The National Quality Forum. August 2003. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD.
Segal JB, Eng J, Jenckes MW, et al. Diagnosis and Treatment of Deep Venous Thrombosis and Pulmonary Embolism. Evidence Report/Technology Assessment Number 68. (Prepared by Johns Hopkins University Evidence-based Practice Center under Contract No. 290-97-0007.) AHRQ Publication No. 03-E016. Rockville, MD: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. March 2003.

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