Medical Practice Trends Authors

EMR Update - follow along as Ocala Eye implements its EMR system

• What to do with all of those paper forms
• Don’t reinvent the wheel - stay up-to-date with your EMR software’s updates
• The structure of your training process and implementation rollout

Ask Bob where we try to stump our seasoned practice administrator - what if a star employee shows up wearing a tongue ring?

Preview of our upcoming Expert Teleseminar Series - DIsaster Recovery & Business Continuity Planning

This Issue (length 11:20)

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Every so often, a visitor from afar (usually from Canada or Great Britain) will comment on the plight of the American health care system and the advantages of their “nationalized” health service. Yes, we certainly have our share of troubles here in the US. And if the current news is any indication, the upcoming election is shaping up to bring more uncertainties for the medical profession - regardless of which political party we are talking about.

A recent blog on ZDNet mentions a survey of Dutch citizens who are generally happy with their form of health care, which is primarily a government-sponsored system with some private carriers (similar to the system implemented in Massachusetts). All people are required to carry insurance, in some cases with government subsidies, relieving employers of the burden of (more…)

Once again we were saved from another Medicare cut at the last minute. This is really getting old. The only consolation is that for once it is getting more press coverage than in the past, mostly with the (correct) slant that these cuts will ultimately hurt Medicare beneficiaries. Several Republican senators changed their votes from their previous positions on HR 6331 to yes after receiving a lot of flack from their constituents, many of them physicians.

Someone (a Fox News follower) said, “There must have been a reason that those senators voted against it.” Well, yes, apparently there was. (more…)

There is a nice compendium of resources on electronic health records recently posted on Nursing Online Education Database entitled The Ultimate Guide to Taking Control of Your Health Records by Alisa Miller. This includes not only sites and tools for consumers but also for medical practices.

If you don’t think do-it-yourself electronic health records is going to be big in the near future, take note that none other than Google and Microsoft are getting into the act. True, they currently offer free resources for consumers but already there are companies looking for ways to make a buck off of the EHR industry.

Medical practices in competitive niches may want to consider some type of portal, either as part of their EMR system or in conjunction with their website, in order to communicate more effectively with their patients. This could be anything from offering email communication with physicians to allowing patients to access their medical records, just like Google.

Shopping for network hardware can be like shopping for a used car in a foreign country. There a lot of decisions to be made and one of the toughest is choosing a brand. The natural instinct is to shop for the lowest price, and although price is a very important factor, others play a big role in the decision making process.

Choosing a Hardware Vendor

Most large vendors negotiate pricing based not only on what you are immediately purchasing but also what you anticipate purchasing in the future, so it’s important to communicate your long term order goals. Often, you can achieve better pricing on a purchase today if your vendor can count on your purchase tomorrow as well.

Repair service and warranty options are critical with network hardware. Make sure you understand
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When I first joined our group about 11 years ago (jeez, it’s been almost 12 years!) we had some 80 or so employees and a big collection of PC computers connected in a patchwork of a network - not exactly state-of-the-art. Our phone system, however, was relatively sophisticated - or so we thought. A multi-line phone system with several custom features and a message-on-hold device. What we didn’t realize until much later was that we were paying for each and every line coming into the building as well as for each and every custom feature on each and every one of those individual phone lines.

Another drawback to this type of system is that the staff needs to keep track of multiple phone numbers - this can get chaotic when you start adding multiple locations. If you needed to get hold of a particular doctor, for example, first you would need to find out where he or she is (more…)

It used to be that two cereal-box tops and a quarter would get you a Flash Gordon secret decoder ring. Nowadays, the same will get you the word “Doctor” in front of your name. It reminds me of a scene from an old sitcom called Fernwood Tonight in which a man is having a heart attack and everyone yells for a doctor. When the “Doctor” comes running out from the audience, he has no idea what to do. It’s because, he says, he is a botanist.

I have always said that if somebody puts the word “Doctor” before his or her name on a sign or business card, it indicates that this person is not a medical doctor (or as one of my partners puts it, not an R.D. or Real Doctor). Conversely, when I first came to town, my medical colleagues (more…)

A frequent discussion among colleagues, especially if they are in the same group, is whether or not a practice will ever realize a return on their investment in an EMR system. Of course, this is beside the point that the government is mandating the use of EMR by within the next ten years. While hospitals and larger clinics have already done the number crunching, and believe that EMR systems will more than pay for themselves, it may be more difficult for the average-sized practice to calculate their savings.

Nevertheless, an article on Software Advice offers some more reasons to consider making the switch to paperless, including

1. Savings on chart pulling costs. Several studies have calculated that it can cost as much as $4 to pull or create a paper chart. Beth Israel Hospital in (more…)

Perhaps one of the most challenging aspects of implementing an electronic medical records system (EMR) is managing its effect on the staff.

According to a study by executive search firm Korn/Ferry International, one of the most common mistakes that executives make when joining a company or making changes is failing to properly read the existing corporate or office culture. An example would be a control-oriented manager coming into a company with a collaborative culture, leading to tension and resistance.

In this column, I’ll explain how to adapt the existing office culture to facilitate the staff’s acceptance of a switch from paper records to EMR.

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Your medical practice is really no different than any other type of business when it comes to the economy. Granted, perhaps medicine is a bit more insulated than the retail industry - people always get sick, but they don’t always need a new car or house. However, discussions we have had with physicians in a variety of specialties suggest that the economic downturn we are experiencing (recession, depression, or whatever you feel comfortable calling it) has had a detrimental effect on medical practices. So, when revenue is down, expenses should be trimmed. And what better area to cut than your marketing budget, right?

Many educated people confuse marketing and advertising, so it is important to distinguish the two. We all know what advertising is: billboards, magazine ads, radio or tv commercials, etc. But this is just a part of marketing. According to the American Marketing Association, marketing is defined as “the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion, and distribution of ideas, goods, services, organizations, and events to create and maintain relationships that will satisfy individual and organizational objectives. ” But what does that really mean?

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