Dissecting the business of a private pediatric practice for the purpose of examining its parts & discourse
I've worked in various industries. I've worked in the grocery business with Nabisco, airline industry with Continental Airlines, I've consulted for companies in the travel industry, software, and finance industry. One of the things that I've noticed working in all these different places, is that each company I've worked with, has a sentence that starts like this, if only.... The grocery business talks about margins. If only our margins were … [Read more...]
Simply put, measuring wellness-to-sick ratio estimates the focus a practice has on preventive care. And how can this info help your practice? Data shows that practices that have fewer sick visits to well visits tend to be practices with better financial outcomes. But there are other reasons why measuring sick to well ratios are beneficial to your practice. Practice Management extraodinaire Chip Hart from PCC has some really good reasons as to … [Read more...]
Last summer, I was asked to give a talk at the Physician’s Computer Company Practice Management Conference. Around the same time, I was starting to write a blog post that talked about 101 things to do in your office. I wasn’t sure how to title it yet. PCC’s theme for the conference was “Change” so I decided to title the talk 101 ways to transform your practice and expand the post I was working on into an hour talk. But I also wanted … [Read more...]
I'm happy to see that in this country, we have media outlets that are digging around to find the real truth. Not the fake truth - like some of those other outlets do - but the REAL truth. Now it all makes sense. Enjoy! … [Read more...]
Today, I have another guest post. This time it's from Dr. Suzanne Berman MD, FAAP. Dr. Berman is also a contributor to Survivor Pediatrics. In this post, she gives insight into the real benefit of having a EMR. For example, many docs believe that a EMR will help them chart faster. But as Dr. Berman points out, that is not always true. The real benefit of an EMR isn’t being able to put data in/chart faster – this is great if you can do it … [Read more...]
In the past few months I’ve been asked a couple of times what advice I would give to someone that is opening a practice from scratch. And in the same conversation I’m asked, do you think, considering everything that is going on now, if it is a good idea to open a medical practice. My short answer is, go for it! My long answer is, well, more complicated. First, I think it is important to assess one’s priorities and determine the true … [Read more...]
Let’s say your practice saw the last patient today for ever. After that last one, no more patients will come see you again. How long before your practice runs out of money? A month; a day; 3 months? This is a very important question to answer. Why? Because it helps us have a perspective on the business and when and how to start making decisions. In the How The Mighty Fall: And Why Some Companies Never Give In Jim Collins talks … [Read more...]
My friends over at Pedsource just published a free RBRVS Calculator based on 2012 data. According to the post, the data is using an annual conversion factor of $24.60. They caution that this number will change sometime between today (12/8/11) and March, 2012. Because the AMA doesn’t let anyone provide a free RVU calculator that includes CPT codes due to their CPT copyrights (booo, booo), the great folks at Pedsource (yaaay, yaaay) created … [Read more...]
One of the easiest and fastest way to save money for your practice, is joining a GPO. However, I’m amazed of how many medical practices don’t know what GPOs are, much less belong to one. If you don’t know what they are or what they do, I’d suggest to look into them. To help you get started, I asked Paresh Patel, National Sales Manager for a large GPO here inChicagoto answer a few questions for readers of this blog. Hopefully, you'll … [Read more...]
My family and I like to watch the Dog Whisperer. The Dog Whisperer is a reality television series that follows Cesar Millan as he works in the field of dog rehabilitation. For those that haven’t seen it, the program shows Cesar being invited to a home to train dogs that have behavioral problems such as aggression, fear, obsessive behaviors among others. It is interesting to see how Cesar is able to bring balance to the dogs behavior. But … [Read more...]
