Remember that your doctor is also human
“I love what I do. I hate what I have to do.”
It’s a quote that doctors attribute to their profession behind closed doors. As patients, we are so overwhelmed with our own problems. We fail to notice that our doctor may be battling her own problems with a complicated system.
But what do we care? Our meeting with the doctor is a paid transaction. We are owed our money’s due. Empathy can take a backseat.
We’ve made medicine into a business affair.
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Your patients are rating you online: How to respond. Manage your online reputation: A social media guide. Find out how. (Source: Kevin, M...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - August 19, 2018 Category: General Medicine Authors: < a href="https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/praveen-suthrum" rel="tag" > Praveen Suthrum < /a > Tags: Physician Practice Management Public Health & Policy Source Type: blogs
Don ’t throw the E & M baby out with the bath water: the proposed CMS changes
By now everyone has heard that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has proposed to dramatically change the way physicians get paid for evaluation and management (E&M) services in the office as part of the proposed 2019 Physician Fee Schedule Rule. In fact, as of the end of July, CMS has received over 600 comments on the proposed rule, with virtually all of them criticizing the proposal. I suspect very few physicians have read the 55 pages describing CMS’ proposal and basing their comments on reporting by various agencies. I don’t fault anyone for not reading it; understanding CMS regulations is not...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - August 11, 2018 Category: General Medicine Authors: < a href="https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/ronald-hirsch" rel="tag" > Ronald Hirsch, MD < /a > Tags: Policy Practice Management Primary Care Source Type: blogs
5 reasons you should put physicians in charge of hospitals
Putting physicians in charge of hospitals seems like a no-brainer, but it isn’t what usually happens. A study published in Academic Medicine states that only about four percent of hospitals in the United States are run by physician leaders, which represents a steep decline from 35 percent in 1935. In the most recent 2018 Becker’s Hospital Review “100 Great Leaders in Healthcare,” only 29 are physicians.
The stats don’t lie, however. Health care systems run by physicians do better. When comparing quality metrics, physician-run hospitals outperform non-physician-run hospitals by 25 percent. In the 2017-18 U.S. News...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - August 10, 2018 Category: General Medicine Authors: < a href="https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/edward-r-mariano" rel="tag" > Edward R. Mariano, MD < /a > Tags: Physician Hospital-Based Medicine Practice Management Source Type: blogs
Why physicians need disclosure coaching
In March 2018, The Collaborative for Healing and Renewal in Medicine (CHARM) published an article titled “Charter on Physician Well-being” in JAMA. The piece describes guiding principles and lists recommendations for promoting well-being among physicians. The charter successfully pulls together, in a 2-page document, a comprehensive approach to preventing burnout and fostering well-being among physicians.
One recommendation especially caught my attention. “Anticipate and Respond to Inherent Emotional Challenges of Physician Work.” A tenet of addressing physician burnout is that some amount of stress is inh...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - July 17, 2018 Category: General Medicine Authors: < a href="https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/diane-w-shannon" rel="tag" > Diane W. Shannon, MD, MPH < /a > Tags: Physician Practice Management Source Type: blogs
3 things patients really want from their doctors
The doctor-patient interaction is the absolute core of clinical medicine. Maybe I’ll go much further: it’s the core of health care in general. I always try to remember, whenever I’m ever feeling frustrated with the system, the crazy bureaucracy — and of course, the debacle of our clunky electronic medical records and their data entry requirements — to separate myself from all of that when I’m face-to-face with my patient and their family. This time is priceless, it’s why I went into this. The interactions and honor of serving my patients at a low point in their lives, makes it all worth it. It’s whe...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - July 5, 2018 Category: General Medicine Authors: < a href="https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/suneel-dhand" rel="tag" > Suneel Dhand, MD < /a > Tags: Physician Practice Management Primary Care Source Type: blogs
Job security in medicine is a myth
Imagine, if you will, that you’re an anesthesiologist. You’ve been part of a successful practice for over 10 years. You can walk down your neighborhood street and run into mothers whose epidurals you’ve helped place. You’ve established a home, a community, and your children are in a great school system.
One uneventful day, say Wednesday, you get an email from the hospital administrators announcing that there’s going to be a meeting on Friday. You’re not sure what it could be about, but you don’t give it much thought.
When Friday rolls around, you discover that the meeting was held to inform you that the contr...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - July 5, 2018 Category: General Medicine Authors: < a href="https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/passive-income-md" rel="tag" > Passive Income, MD < /a > Tags: Finance Practice Management Source Type: blogs
Why more physicians should enter industry
Attend any biotech or health informatics conference and one thing becomes clear: the scarcity of physicians. Entrepreneurs, businessmen, angel investors, and software engineers swarm these conferences — and their encompassing companies — all the while the imperative persona in this realm remains tied up behind a dysfunctional EHR or in an overbooked operating room. Why?
Certainly, inculcating these dynamic players in the health care space is integral to the successful evolvement of the American health care system. Software engineers brilliantly bring forth their skills for analytics, mechanical engineers ensure...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - June 30, 2018 Category: General Medicine Authors: < a href="https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/ayden-jacob" rel="tag" > Ayden Jacob < /a > Tags: Tech Mobile health Practice Management Source Type: blogs
Investors Competing For Health IT Opportunities
A new study has concluded that investors are hungry for health IT investment opportunities, in some cases battling competitors for particularly attractive companies. The report concluded that investment firms see health IT as a lower-risk way to get a cut of the healthcare market than other possible targets.
The analysis by Bain & Company, which looks at 2017 numbers, said that the number of health IT investment deals completed last year rose to 32 from 23 in 2016.
The value of disclosed deals fell from $15.5 billion in 2016 to $1.9 billion in 2017. This is not a sign of weakness in the sector, however. The 2016 deal...
Source: EMR and HIPAA - June 28, 2018 Category: Information Technology Authors: Anne Zieger Tags: Clinical Decision Support EHR Electronic Health Record Electronic Medical Record EMR Health Care Healthcare HealthCare IT Population Health Management Practice Management Revenue Cycle Management AccessOne Bain & Company Bracket Source Type: blogs
5 ways assembly line medicine harms patients
When we go to the deli, we expect to take a number and wait in line. Accomplishing any task at the department of motor vehicles can be an ordeal of waiting and then being herded out the door. This is part of life in American society. However, it should not be part of your health care.
Patients need personalized attention and they need a health care team that listens to them, no matter who is telling them to step up the pace. Sure, if pushed I can see ten patients an hour. But, I don’t want to and no doctor should be forced to. For one thing, patients are living longer with more chronic diseases than ever before. And when...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - June 18, 2018 Category: General Medicine Authors: < a href="https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/linda-girgis" rel="tag" > Linda Girgis, MD < /a > Tags: Physician Practice Management Primary Care Source Type: blogs
5 Steps to Ensure Revenue Integrity After Implementing a New EHR
The following is a guest blog post by Lisa Eramo, a regular contributor to Kareo’s Go Practice Blog.
In the rush to implement EHRs for Meaningful Use incentives, many practices lost sight of what matters most for continued success—revenue integrity, says Joette Derricks, healthcare compliance and revenue integrity consultant in Baltimore, MD. Revenue integrity—the idea that practices must take proactive steps to capture and retain revenue—isn’t a novel concept. However, it’s becoming increasingly important for physician practices operating in a regulatory-driven environment, she adds.
Revenue integrity is also ...
Source: EMR and HIPAA - June 18, 2018 Category: Information Technology Authors: Guest Blogger Tags: Certified EHR Electronic Health Record Electronic Medical Record EMR HealthCare IT Meaningful Use Medical Economics Revenue Cycle Management CPT Training EHR Billing EHR Templates ICD-10 Training Joette Derricks Kareo Lisa Eram Source Type: blogs
A fight for the heart and soul of health care
Health care has undergone innumerable changes over the last decade, and the pace of change only appears to be accelerating. At the crux of most of the changes we’ve seen is the central problem that the cost of our health care system is unsustainable, and we as a nation need to put the brakes on it. The costs to individual patients are also unacceptably high.
Unfortunately, the prevailing philosophy has been to increase regulations and add more layers of expensive bureaucracy and pile on more non-clinical administrators. No reasonable person would argue against a sector as large and vital as health care, not having a degr...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - June 13, 2018 Category: General Medicine Authors: < a href="https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/suneel-dhand" rel="tag" > Suneel Dhand, MD < /a > Tags: Physician Practice Management Public Health & Policy Source Type: blogs
How this physician deals with race-based comments
It seems like every other day, there’s a new discussion or debate which emerges about the unique challenges that minorities face in America. This is, of course, a sensitive topic, because minorities in any arena will always have their personal story. Whether it’s because of your color, or anything else that makes you feel like you face extra hurdles — there are indeed lots of ways in which society still has inherent biases.
Speaking as someone whose parents are from India, and grew up in England as basically the only non-white child in my elementary school, I certainly faced my fair share of racism growing up. I ...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - June 11, 2018 Category: General Medicine Authors: < a href="https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/suneel-dhand" rel="tag" > Suneel Dhand, MD < /a > Tags: Physician Hospital-Based Medicine Practice Management Source Type: blogs
Burnout: Don ’t blame the clinicians; blame the system
Physician burnout is the depression of the medical world. We are aware of its presence and the detriment it can cause, but yet, we don’t really like to talk about it. The problem is, just like depression, if we don’t talk about it or seek to address it, it persists and leads to a number of unwanted outcomes including decreased productivity, decreased patient satisfaction, and increase in medical errors. And if you are one of those, who thinks this only occurs to a select few, I want you to rethink that. Most statistics suggest that 50 percent of physicians have experienced burnout at one time or another. Thus, you have...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - May 14, 2018 Category: General Medicine Authors: < a href="https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/anh-le" rel="tag" > Anh Le, MD < /a > Tags: Physician Practice Management Psychiatry Source Type: blogs
ADHA Can ’t Even Say What They Mean As Far As myHR Availability Is Concerned?
This article originally appeared on Australian Association of Practice Management (AAPM). By the end of this year, every Australian will have a My Health Record unless they decide they do not want one – and all healthcare providers need to be prepared, wherever they are.Already 5.5 million Australians – more than 20% of the population – have a My Health Record. Almost 1,000 public and private hospitals around Australia have connected to the My Health Record system via their electronic medical record systems. Across Australia, 72% of public hospitals are connected to My Health Record – covering approximately 81% of ...
Source: Australian Health Information Technology - May 4, 2018 Category: Information Technology Authors: Dr David G More MB PhD Source Type: blogs
This physician wasn ’t afraid to fail
Basketball dreams
I had one dream throughout childhood. (It certainly wasn’t to be a seven-figure failure!)
To play basketball. Now before you start to criticize me for my grandiosity, the goal was more simple. I had no plans of playing in the NBA, or even college for that matter. I had one simple goal-make my high school basketball team.
Easy you say, right? Well, the team was super competitive, and most of my classmates had at least a half a foot on me. I was new to the school system and had few friends. I envisioned the team as my entrance into this new community. I could belong.
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Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - May 3, 2018 Category: General Medicine Authors: < a href="https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/docg" rel="tag" > DocG, MD < /a > Tags: Finance Practice Management Source Type: blogs
