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…)

Tweet This Post

I recently read a book entitled Corporate Agility (Grantham et al, 2007 AMACOM). And although initially I thought it was just applicable to large corporations, I realized that in fact it could be very useful for the typical medical practice. It describes a process known as collaborative strategic management (CSM). This is a strategic approach to management that incorporates three main areas: human resources (HR), information technology (IT) and corporate real estate (CRT).

The main principle of CSM is that, although these three areas may seem completely distinct, they need to be thought of as interdependent. Most of us are familiar with the terms HR and IT, but what does corporate real estate mean?

(more…)

Tweet This Post

Should your practice outsource IT (information technology) or hire your own in-house computer specialist? Whether you decide to implement an electronic medical records system now or five years down the road, the movement towards a practice management approach that makes more use of advanced technologies is already underway. At root, the practice of medicine is a business like any other, and today’s physicians must be prepared to embrace state-of-the-art tools or face the possibility of being edged out by more tech-savvy competitors.

(more…)

Tweet This Post