Healthcare Analytics at the Information Builders Summit
Every summer the business analytics and data management company, Information Builders, holds a conference to bring together thousands of company employees, representatives from international conglomerates, and a variety of other attendees. With upwards of 140 presentations and technical workshops spanning three days, there is always something to learn for everyone. This year, Medgadget was invited to attend Summit to learn about Information Builders’ most recent forays into the Healthcare sector.
The summit kicked off with a keynote presentation by the CEO of Information Builders, Gerald Cohen, announcing a variety of ne...
Source: Medgadget - November 2, 2017 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Mohammad Saleh Tags: Exclusive Informatics Public Health Source Type: blogs
Better paid, better utilized physicians can transform the VA
It’s a tale of two health systems: the VA and Kaiser Permanente.
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Veterans Health Administration (VA) is a mission-driven health organization, serving our nation’s veterans. A patient population of 8.9 million, led by David Shulkin, MD. An early leader in health technology adoption. The VA has faced serious issues; however: long patient wait times (deadly long in some cases) and high physician turnover rates.
Kaiser Permanente looks fairly similar at the start. A nonprofit health system supporting 11.8 members under the inspirational “Thrive” banner, led by Bernard Tyson. An ...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - November 2, 2017 Category: General Medicine Authors: < a href="http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/suvas-vajracharya" rel="tag" > Suvas Vajracharya, PhD < /a > Tags: Policy Practice Management Primary Care Public Health & Surgery Source Type: blogs
How did this health care system add a personal touch?
An excerpt from The Power of Moments: Why Certain Experiences Have Extraordinary Impact. Reprinted by permission of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
Defining moments shape our lives, but we don’t have to wait for them to happen. We can be the authors of them. What if a teacher could design a lesson that students were still reflecting on years later? What if a manager knew exactly how to turn an employee’s moment of failure into a moment of growth? What if you had a better sense of how to create lasting memories for your kids?
In this book, we have two goals: First, we want to examine defining moments and identify the trait...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - November 1, 2017 Category: General Medicine Authors: < a href="http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/chip-heath-and-dan-health" rel="tag" > Chip Heath and Dan Health < /a > Tags: Policy Hospital-Based Medicine Practice Management Source Type: blogs
It ’s time to speak with a collective voice: Why doctors should unionize
Since the birth of our nation, labor unions have existed in one form or another in the United States. Unions are a force to protect the “working population” from inequality, gaps in wages and a political system failing to represent specific industry groups. Historically, unions organize skilled workers in a specific corporation, such as a railroad or production plant. However, unions can organize numerous workers within a particular industry. Known as “industrial unionism,” the union gives a profession or trade a collective and representative voice. The existence of unions has already been woven into the po...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - October 31, 2017 Category: General Medicine Authors: < a href="http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/niran-s-al-agba" rel="tag" > Niran S. Al-Agba, MD < /a > Tags: Physician Practice Management Public Health & Policy Source Type: blogs
Caring for patients all the way (bills included)
Within doctors’ examination rooms, operating rooms and waiting rooms, clinicians and other staff know the importance of empathy. Caring for patients and loved ones extends beyond one’s medical skills. It also requires a good heart.
As sign-up time for 2018 medical insurance approaches, patients look for a meaningful differentiator in health care providers when deciding whether to stick with their health plan, their primary care provider, and other doctors. On the medical side of our industry, health care systems line up to talk about how caring their doctors and nurses are – and overall, they’re pretty honest in de...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - October 26, 2017 Category: General Medicine Authors: < a href="http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/ted-matthews" rel="tag" > Ted Matthews, MBA < /a > Tags: Physician Practice Management Primary Care Source Type: blogs
Fixing the American health care system is simple. Here ’s how to do it.
If we listen to the president, fixing the American health care system is too complicated. It is not actually that complicated. The number one issue is cost. Even with many millions of people unable to access care, we already spend close to twenty percent of every dollar in the U.S. on health care. If we hope to include everyone in the health care system, then we need to lower health care expenditures dramatically. Here’s just one way we could do that.
A 2014 BMC Health Services Research study (“Insurance-related Administrative Costs in United States’ Health Care”) found that billing and insurance-related administ...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - October 25, 2017 Category: General Medicine Authors: < a href="http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/matthew-hahn" rel="tag" > Matthew Hahn, MD < /a > Tags: Policy Practice Management Public Health & Washington Watch Source Type: blogs
Here ’s why women doctors need time together
The 2nd Annual Women in Anesthesiology Conference is taking place in October. Developing this organization has been a labor of, if not love, then honoring. We are honoring a value system that works to gives women the respect, autonomy, and power they deserve.
There is an amazing power in gathering, shared experiences and decreasing isolation. Nobody has identical life experiences. But part of what informs our identity is shared experiences. As anesthesiologists, we did not all do the same residencies. But we all know what it is like to discuss a surprise difficult airway, an ejection fraction of 15 percent in a demented pa...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - October 20, 2017 Category: General Medicine Authors: < a href="http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/rekha-chandrabose" rel="tag" > Rekha Chandrabose, MD < /a > Tags: Physician Practice Management Surgery Source Type: blogs
What ’s the one word to improve the well-being of clinicians?
Recently, I was asked an intriguing question by an interviewer: “If you had a magic wand and could have one wish for improving the well-being of clinicians and addressing burnout, what would it be?”
My response? Respect. Respect for the humanity of everyone who touches the health care system — patients, family members, administrative staff, organizational leaders, clinical staff, clinicians, cleaning staff, parking valets, pharmacists, lab technicians, front desk staff, and the folks who answer the phone and help with appointment scheduling.
My answer was not really a fair one. I believe that respect of this sort...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - October 10, 2017 Category: General Medicine Authors: < a href="http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/diane-w-shannon" rel="tag" > Diane W. Shannon, MD, MPH < /a > Tags: Physician Practice Management Primary Care Psychiatry Source Type: blogs
Want to change medicine? Work in finance.
Traditionally, many medical students use the proverbial “last summer of their lives” to conduct basic/clinical research, shadow or go abroad. If you want to be a leader in health care or are simply unsure of what to do over the summer, you should try something more exotic and unexpected — work in finance or industry.
Wall Street, big pharma and private insurers have long been the moral punching bags of clinicians and health care workers. Yet, stepping into their shoes can be valuable for two reasons. First, you will begin to understand incentives in the health care system. Second, you will become familiar with the la...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - October 5, 2017 Category: General Medicine Authors: < a href="http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/ryan-okeefe" rel="tag" > Ryan O ’Keefe < /a > Tags: Education Medical school Practice Management Public Health & Policy Source Type: blogs
5 things physicians can do to protect themselves
As someone who talks to many physicians about burnout and life in medicine, I find myself having a lot of discussions about the circumstances of people’s jobs. Almost inevitably, there comes a point in the conversation where someone expresses dissatisfaction about an aspect of their contract or an additional responsibility that was placed on them.
As physicians, we’re groomed to take care of patients. During training, we don’t talk about compensation, work-life balance, or the business of medicine. In many ways, it’s actually frowned upon to do so, and our hierarchical systems discourage open conversation on these ...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - October 1, 2017 Category: General Medicine Authors: < a href="http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/nisha-mehta" rel="tag" > Nisha Mehta, MD < /a > Tags: Physician Practice Management Primary Care Source Type: blogs
How tech can get doctors back to seeing patients
Rates of physician burnout are rising, and many physicians cite their electronic health record (EHR) as the primary culprit. That’s no surprise, since doctors spend twice as much time on electronic health record (EHR) systems and deskwork as they do directly interacting with patients. Let that sink in for a moment. Imagine if an airline pilot spent six hours documenting every detail of a three-hour flight. Such is the reality of modern medicine.
Proposed solutions have ranged from simplifying billing and quality reporting practices to abandoning EHR altogether. But we believe, perhaps ironically, that the most straightfo...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - September 26, 2017 Category: General Medicine Authors: < a href="http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/timothy-judson-and-robert-wachter" rel="tag" > Timothy Judson, MD, MPH and Robert Wachter, MD < /a > Tags: Tech Cardiology Health IT Practice Management Primary Care Source Type: blogs
An open letter about hate and how to fix it
Most parents have been deeply distressed by the rising violence and streams of hate as a keynote in our national discourse. For a constructive response, I encourage parents to write to their school administrators and partner with the adults in their children’s community to stem the tide of vitriol that has engulfed our views on race, religion, and the study of history in our everyday lives. Here is an edited version of the letter that I sent:
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I’m sure that you have been horrified by the events in Charlottesville, VA which became the confluence of smaller eddies of dissension, dissatisfaction, ennui and frustration ...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - September 20, 2017 Category: General Medicine Authors: < a href="http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/sudha-prasad" rel="tag" > Sudha Prasad, MD < /a > Tags: Physician Emergency Medicine Practice Management Primary Care Source Type: blogs
Willingness To Invest In Outpatient EHRs and PM Solutions Grows
While the ambulatory EHR market remains somewhat stable, the number of organizations preparing to get out of their existing system has climbed over previous years, along with an increase in the number of organizations prepared to upgrade their practice management solution, according to new data from HIMSS.
To conduct the 9th Annual Outpatient PM & EHR Study, HIMSS Analytics reached out to physicians, practice managers/administrators, practice CEOs/presidents, PAs, NPs and practice IT directors/staff. A total of 436 professionals responded to its web-based survey.
The survey concluded that 93% of hospital-owned outpatie...
Source: EMR and HIPAA - September 15, 2017 Category: Information Technology Authors: Anne Zieger Tags: EHR Electronic Health Record Electronic Medical Record EMR HealthCare IT Practice Management Ambulatory EHR Ambulatory EMR EHR Replacement EHR Upgrade EMR Replacement EMR Upgrade HIMSS Analytics Source Type: blogs
Take back our practices with physician cooperatives
One of the biggest points of contention in the ongoing discussion of burnout is that the system of health care is flawed. The endless bureaucracy, decreasing physician pay, and increasing meaningful use requirements that spawn endless clicking on an already inefficient electronic medical record platform have become unbearable by most practicing physicians today.
Furthermore, all the talk about mindfulness only riles up more anger in physicians as they feel they are being blamed for their burnout. While there is a case for physicians taking personal responsibility for their own self-care skills (or sometimes lack thereo...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - September 14, 2017 Category: General Medicine Authors: < a href="http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/maiysha-clairborne" rel="tag" > Maiysha Clairborne, MD < /a > Tags: Physician Practice Management Primary Care Public Health & Policy Source Type: blogs
