How are you handling recent changes in routine office work flow? Have you implemented any of the newer technologies available for dealing with your waiting list? What about your insurance handling? As labor costs have gone up (without reimbursements going up!), and with a chronic labor shortage in most markets, automating your practice becomes progressively more compelling to keep on top of your current demands and to maintain your profit margins. The term “Luddite” is often used to describe people who are opposed to new technology. However, the original Luddites were industrial … [Read more...] about New Technology in health care: Are you a Luddite or an early adopter?
Office Management
Leadership
Managing patient care requires a variety of leadership, where you take your patient from the starting point to their destination of restored health and wellness. This can require navigation of coordinated care, the medico-legal system, the private insurance system and many other types of items secondary to the actual care delivered. However, showing leadership in the context of a larger practice or a multi-disciplinary practice is a different matter. These ideas revolve around the notion of Emotional Intelligence, a phrase attributed to Peter Salovey and John Mayer. This is generally … [Read more...] about Leadership
Communication Pipelines in the Office
In smaller offices, communication from the doctor to other staff members, whether administrative or technical, is fairly straightforward. Everyone is close in proximity and there is ample opportunity to clear up anything that might be unclear. In a larger practice or particularly a multi-disciplinary practice, this is not as straightforward. Many doctors who are directors of or participants in larger practices developed their managerial habits in smaller practices, and then find that the small-scale approach is no longer effective. You will know this in your practice when you have to repeat … [Read more...] about Communication Pipelines in the Office
Passwords
Having a strong password for your sensitive information is a crucial part of your security set-up. Even though this is something everybody knows, it is still quite common for users to have extremely weak passwords protecting valuable and sensitive information. These range from the same thing as your username to equally absurd passwords like 12345 or abc123 or password. (That last one is a bit hard to believe, but true). Use of heavily encrypted passwords such as those suggested by your browser are virtually impossible to hack, but equally impossible to remember. Frequently visited websites … [Read more...] about Passwords