Operations

Many practices use midlevel providers to care for patients with routine complaints. But it’s important to understand their legal scope of practice and necessary level of supervision.

It’s tough to get away from the office without worrying you’ll come back to a mountain of work. But taking time for yourself is crucial. Here’s advice on doing it right.

Advances in care delivery and technology are taking root now that could significantly change the way care is delivered in the future. Healthcare’s innovative thinkers and practitioners give us their predictions for the future.

Here is a list to get your new Web page started. Remember that not all components are easy to implement nor will they be ready in a day. Get started, but be patient. You most likely do not have all the components ready or figured out, but move forward.

Should you keep your Rx data away from drug companies? Is that even possible? Here’s what you can and can’t do to protect your prescribing privacy.

Here’s how practice administrators can help prepare your practice’s defense against a liability claim.

Consultant Nick Fabrizio details how you can prepare your practice for the H1N1 virus this season

Most practices waste scads of money - then wonder why they need a microscope to see their bottom line. To keep you on the right road, we’ve posted the signs to a more efficient and productive practice.

Forget herbal tea and bubble baths - a physician’s stress requires a more aggressive treatment. Here’s how to dissect the causes of your stress and utilize effective strategies for finding solutions.

Considering outsourcing the business side of your practice to a revenue cycle management firm? Let someone deal with the claims and collections headaches … right? Maybe. We examine the pros, cons, expenses, and benefits.

In the wake of a “reformed” healthcare system, here’s how to take steps now to get your practice ready for an influx of newly insured Americans.

Family physician Sarah Parrott offers a primer on managing angry patients the right way, instead of losing your cool.

A biopsy sample down the drain could have been a disaster. Urologist Neil Baum explains how his surgeon mentor used Baum’s mistake to teach him a valuable lesson.

This podcast series features conversations with two experts from the MGMA: Robert Bennett, a member of MGMA’s government affairs staff, who explains what parts of the law are likely to affect medical practices, and Dave Gans, vice president of practice management resources at MGMA, who details what practices can do now to get ready for reform. 

In this podcast, Robert Tennant, senior policy advisor for the Medical Group Management Association, explains the EHR meaningful use draft criteria.

Family-practice doc David Albenberg explains his move from traditional care to concierge medicine and offers tips for figuring out what number works for you.

Medical practices in America generate millions of tons of solid waste each year. We tell you how to use your purchasing power to buy products that you can reuse instead of replace.

As December comes to a close, you realize that your practice has survived another year.

Want to know how to boost your scores on those seemingly arbitrary online physician-rating sites? The sites aren’t going away, so you’ll need to know how to make the best of them.

An EMR purchase is a business decision like any other. It’s an expensive decision, true, and it requires change. But it’s still just a business decision. What questions should you really be asking yourself?

Some people find auto-dialing machines annoying, but they’re more efficient than having your staff call each of your next-day’s appointments to deliver a simple reminder. And they work just as well.

If you don’t have a policy on staff e-mail usage, you need one. Here’s why.

Now that you’ve decided which vendor will supply your new EMR (or practice management system, or other large IT purchase), it’s time to hammer out a deal. How do you negotiate the best terms for one of the biggest purchases your practice will ever make?

An unnecessary service charge here, a bloated maintenance contract there - you may be only dimly aware of how these small “nickel and dime” charges add up to big bucks.

Spirituality and medicine sometimes interact uncomfortably. Here’s how to be sensitive while meeting your religious patients’ clinical needs.

Few administrators experience daily upheavals in their practices, but most are presented with a major transition at some point during their career. Are you ready?

An internal medicine specialist was fleeced badly by the Mother of all Embezzlers. Don’t think it can’t happen to you until you read what happened to her.

Plastic surgeon Suzanne Kim Doud Galli on how an ordinary nose job turned into the worst case of her career.

A Los Angeles pediatrician thinks she doesn’t have enough time, but is lack of space her real problem?

Dealing with constant call is the bane of many small physician groups. But with the right planning, even solo physicians can share call just like their big-practice peers. Here’s how.