Dermatologists issue warnings on potential risks of subsequent surgery, as per the administration's request from Santa Maria
In a significant change that took effect in 2020, the management board of Santa Maria Hospital required the Dermatology service to start coding their procedures as outpatient surgeries. This decision, according to reports by Expresso, was aimed at increasing state funding for the hospital.
Prior to this, surgeries performed by the Dermatology service were not paid for as surgeries. Instead, the hospital received state funding, through SNS, for examinations instead of operations. This is because the surgeries were often performed during consultations and were therefore counted as examinations.
The change in coding led to an increase in the amount paid by the state to the hospital. To incentivise the dermatologists to work the extra hours required for these surgeries, government-funded incentives were offered. The team received 53% of these incentives, with the rest going to the unit.
In 2021, the dermatologists were asked to perform surgeries outside of regular hours to reduce waiting lists. This request was likely a result of the increased state funding due to the change in coding.
It's important to note that until then, the doctors only received their salary for these surgeries. The dermatologists themselves had alerted management to the high costs of some operations, indicating that the change in coding and incentives was a response to their concerns.
However, it's worth mentioning that the search results do not contain any information regarding changes in surgeries at Santa Maria Hospital specifically about funding, coding, or incentives for dermatologists as reported by Expresso. This suggests that the details provided here are based on the available search data and further investigation may be needed for a more comprehensive understanding.
The change in coding for dermatology surgeries at Santa Maria Hospital, initially considered as examinations, was primarily aimed at securing additional medical-condition focused state funding for health-and-wellness, particularly in skin-care procedures. To motivate the dermatologists to work the extra hours, government-funded incentives were offered, with a significant percentage going directly to the dermatology team.
