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Archives : primary care
Medical practice management 101: Scalability
In this new series on The Healthcare Entrepreneur Blog, we’ll be taking a look at a number of medical practice management concepts that medical practice managers, administrators, and clinic owners should consider as part of their planning and day-to-day management. The principles we’ll be outlining as part of the Medical Practice 101 series are applicable to all types of medical practices including general medicine, the surgical specialties, and rehabilitation services such as physical and occupational therapy.
Here, we’ll discuss the concept of scalability as relevant to medical practice management. Scalability is the ability for a medical practice to expand its current systems, infrastructure, operations, and staff alongside the growth of the practice over a number of months or years. Scalability is an area of medical practice management that is not always fully considered when planning for the implementation of electronic medical records and business systems used to run and administer the medical practice, and can end up costing a medical practice severely in terms of time and money in order to meet the changing demands of a practice over time.
When planning for the use of electronic medical records (EMR) and practice management software (PMS), one of the scalable solutions that we like around here is the the use of web-based software or software-as-a-service (SAAS). The use of web-based or SAAS solutions allows a practice to operate one medical facility just as easily as operating two or more sites because the infrastructure used to link each user with the medical practice database exists via the internet. The need for a robust hardware infrastructure, including servers and virtual private networks (VPN’s) is minimized, and with it – the upfront cost of implementation.
Web-based software is typically provided on a per-user license basis, meaning that as additional providers or staff join the practice, additional licenses (or ’seats’) are purchased which allow the medical practice to easily grow, or ’scale’ their investment alongside the growth of the medical practice. Web-based software is a very scalable solution when it comes to medical practice management, which is why our medical practice consultants often recommend web-based solutions to our clients when determining solutions that will allow them to continue with their medical practice management infrastructure over the long haul.
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Tannus Quatre is a private practice consultant and principal with Vantage Clinical Solutions, Inc., a nationwide healthcare consulting and management firm located in Bend, OR and Denver, CO. Tannus specializes in the areas of healthcare marketing, strategy, and finance, and can be reached through the Vantage Clinical Solutions website.
Physician office sends patient data to wrong fax number…for 3 years
A Tennessee physician practice apparently sent out hundreds of faxes to a wrong fax number, breaching the privacy of likely hundreds of patients over the course of 3 years. Lots of questions about this one, like the obvious one: why wasn’t this remedied after the first error?
This is a huge HIPAA violation, and should serve as a reminder to make sure procedures are in place to verify and cross-check fax numbers and all other addressed material for all patient-related communications.
“This is a total breach of privacy,” Keith said. “This is supposed to be confidential, and it just so happens we have some scruples here and wouldn’t do anything with that information. We’ve shredded them, but you can have a file an inch thick in no time.”
via Doctors mistakenly fax patients’ data to Indiana company | The Tennessean.
Blogging in healthcare: The power of instant communication
Blogging can (and should) be considered a powerful strategy used for marketing, publicity, and even damage control for an organization who’s stakeholders exist online. For small private practices and large healthcare organizations alike, the power of blogging to reach an audience is often underestimated. The article below from Health Leaders Media does a great job of outlining the benefits of a blogging strategy for healthcare providers, as well as some tips on who and how blogging should be performed.
A blog can be a powerful way to get a hospital’s message out to the public, says Mark Whitman, vice president of digital marketing at Ohio-based brand consulting firm Northlich. “A big advantage of blogs is that information can be shared quickly among all stakeholders,” he says. “Quick response and sharing of information can help stop misinformation and rumors that can be very damaging during times of crisis.”
via Hospital Blogs Can Help During Times of Controversy | www.healthleadersmedia.com
Interstate competition for primary care doctors
Competition for a shrinking pool of qualified primary care doctors is hurting states that have a hard time recruiting against higher paying markets. For Vermont, the lure of a high quality of life isn’t quite enough it seems.
The reasons for the doctor shortage, which has been gradually worsening over the years, are well documented. Much of the problem boils down to money. Medical students who opt to specialize rather than enter primary care practices stand to make significantly more because specific procedures earn higher reimbursements than generalized care and diagnoses. For medical students leaving school with debt loads often topping $150,000, the decision to enter primary care practice often means a degree of financial hardship, according to survey-based research conducted in Vermont and nationwide.
Exerpted from: Doctor shortage proves painful to state: Times Argus Online.
A Doctor by Choice, a Businessman by Necessity
A good essay in the NYTimes.com which speaks to the rising commercialism of healthcare.
I didn’t bother to disillusion him, but the reality is that most doctors today, whether in academic or private practice, constantly have to think about money. Last January, Dr. Pamela Hartzband and Dr. Jerome Groopman, physicians at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, wrote in The New England Journal of Medicine that “price tags are being applied to every aspect of a doctor’s day, creating an acute awareness of costs and reimbursement.” And they added, “Today’s medical students are being inducted into a culture in which their profession is seen increasingly in financial terms.”
via Essay – A Doctor by Choice, a Businessman by Necessity.
Specialization in health care means more cost to the system
It’s the unfortunate reality that while increased specialization of labor in health care can result in better care, it most certainly results in more expensive care. This is going to be an issue until we find a way to pay more for “brain time” or “cognitive medicine.”
From, the NY Times: Let Doctors Bid for Medicare Business
Researchers have observed that having one additional specialist (per 100,000 people) in a region leads to about $13 more in health care spending per Medicare patient. New York City, for instance, has 186 specialists for every 100,000 residents, which is twice as many as Albany’s 93. Accordingly, Medicare spends $12,114 a year treating each patient in New York City, but only $5,950 in Albany.
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Tannus Quatre PT, MBA is a private practice consultant and principal with Vantage Clinical Solutions, Inc., a nationwide healthcare consulting and management firm located in Bend, OR and Denver, CO. Tannus specializes in the areas of healthcare marketing, strategy, and finance, and can be reached through the Vantage Clinical Solutions website.
Choosing a new primary care doctor: What the media is saying
Here’s a great clip from ABC News that discusses a framework for choosing a primary care physician. Knowing what the media is telling patients about how to find providers is an important step toward setting up marketing messages and systems that will help attract and retain a loyal following.
- Ask family and friends who they trust
- Find out where your doctor is affiliated
- Check the doctor’s credentials
- Find out the doctor’s accessibility
- Find out what your doctor will cost
Click here for the ABC News video
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Tannus Quatre PT, MBA is a private practice consultant and principal with Vantage Clinical Solutions, Inc., a nationwide healthcare consulting and management firm located in Bend, OR and Denver, CO. Tannus specializes in the areas of healthcare marketing, strategy, and finance, and can be reached through the Vantage Clinical Solutions website.
If doctors want more time with their patients, they better be creative
It is possible after all, to spend more time with a patient. It just can’t be done using outdated paradigms. This article below from the New York Times tells the story of Dr. Battle, a primary care physician from New York that is leveraging technology and an innovative business model in his successful primary care practice. The result…more time with patients and exceedingly better care than the status quo.
To make personalized care possible in an era when compensation is often tied to the number of patients they see, doctors use technology to streamline processes and reduce administrative costs. Dr. Batlle, for example, uses online appointment scheduling and manages his medical records electronically. He prescribes medications from his computer and offers virtual visits by phone and e-mail.
If All Doctors Had More Time to Listen – NYTimes.com
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Tannus Quatre PT, MBA is a private practice consultant and principal with Vantage Clinical Solutions, Inc., a nationwide healthcare consulting and management firm located in Bend, OR and Denver, CO. Tannus specializes in the areas of healthcare marketing, strategy, and finance, and can be reached through the Vantage Clinical Solutions website.
The business of referrals in medicine
In any industry, new business is required for growth, but it’s naturally much harder to come by. This has an impact on health care.
The New York Times published an essay titled, “Referral System Turns Patients Into Commodities” recently, and it provides stellar insight into the behind-the-scenes business relationships that are driving supply and demand of both patients and specialty care.
Logic says that a referral should depend only on a patient’s needs and the reputation and skill of the physician to which the patient is referred. But medicine is a business too, so that isn’t how it always works in practice.
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Tannus Quatre PT, MBA is a private practice consultant and principal with Vantage Clinical Solutions, Inc., a nationwide healthcare consulting and management firm located in Bend, OR and Denver, CO. Tannus specializes in the areas of healthcare marketing, strategy, and finance, and can be reached through the Vantage Clinical Solutions website.
Increased reimbursement = lower healthcare costs?
Paradoxical, yes, but according to new recommendations presented by the American College of Physicians (ACP), this is exactly what is required in order to reduce healthcare costs: Increase reimbursement for primary care physicians as part of the effort to lower the cost of medical care.
The argument goes something like this. By increasing reimbursement to primary care physicians, we will reduce the primary care shortage (currently a shortage of 16,000 physicians nationwide), which in effect will improve the quality of healthcare resulting in fewer “big ticket” costs such as hospital admissions, surgeries, and ER visits.
Makes sense, and I support efforts to address the primary care shortage, though I’d be interested to see the actual math as well as the ACP’s thoughts on why specialists wouldn’t respond with equal demands for increased reimbursement.
The annual report recommends reforms to the primary care payment policies that would enable primary care physicians to achieve market competitiveness with other specialties. The disparity between the salary range of primary care physicians and non–primary care physicians is a large factor in the declining number of medical students deciding on careers as general internists or family physicians.
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There is increasing evidence that augmenting the number of primary care physicians improves quality and lowers the cost of medical care. For example, recent studies indicate that communities with a greater proportion of primary care physicians have fewer hospital admissions, fewer emergency department visits, and fewer surgeries. Furthermore, a 5% decrease in the rate of hospital admissions could result in a healthcare savings of up to $1.3 billion.
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Tannus Quatre PT, MBA is a practice consultant and principal with Vantage Clinical Solutions, Inc., a national healthcare consulting and management firm based in Oregon and Colorado. Tannus can be reached through the Vantage Clinical Solutions website by clicking here.
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