The Journal of medical practice management : MPM
-
Office-based surgery continues to grow as more procedures are being performed in the outpatient setting. With this exponential growth, there is an increasing emphasis on safe and effective patient care. Current research shows both gaps in safety and opportunities for improvement. ⋯ Effective strategies to maintain quality and patient safety include the use of checklists, obtaining office accreditation, encouraging board-certification and proper credentialing of proceduralists, and appropriate patient and procedure selection. There is increasing regulation of ambulatory surgery on state and national levels that will likely affect the financial and care quality aspects of office-based practice. Socioeconomic and political forces will continue to shape the future of office-based surgery.
-
Can patients reliably choose a good doctor online? Inevitably, some will. Many doctors are not comfortable being visible online. So if you do not have a blog or a social media profile, what shows up when a patient Googles you most likely will be something from an online rating site. ⋯ As one of authors (KP) noticed, patients are now saying that they found his practice through the Internet, in stark contrast to 10 years ago, when their information sources were the Yellow Pages or a newspaper ad, or from calling the local hospital. Below are five key reasons why determining your online reputation today can pay off in the future. This article will guide you in establishing your social media footprint and includes a personal story of one physician's reaction to conducting a Google search on herself.
-
There is increasing buzz around the term "medical scribe" in healthcare today. Medical scribes help meet the growing electronic medical record (EMR) data entry challenge healthcare providers face. ⋯ They do this by charting patient encounters in real-time during patient examinations, thus reducing significantly the data entry workload that EMRs place on providers. Medical scribes can work onsite or offsite from a HIPAA-secure location, the latter being known as "virtual medical scribes." This article explores the uses and benefits of scribes to give you the background to employ them effectively in your clinic or hospital.
-
Communication is at the heart of medical practice management. Yet there are many barriers to effective communication that can interfere with the smooth running of the practice. ⋯ It suggests 10 communication principles readers can share directly with their teams and describes three hallmarks of effective team communication. Finally, this article provides a list of 25 practical questions practice managers can use to improve their team's communication.
-
As healthcare delivery continues to evolve at a rapid pace, practices need to consider redesign approaches to stay ahead of the pack. From national policy and private payer initiatives to societal macro trends and the growing use of mobile technologies, delivering value, understanding customer needs, and assessing satisfaction are important elements to achieve and maintain success. This article discusses 10 practice redesign approaches.