Patient Relations

With patients taking on more financial responsibility, have a strategy in place to collect what you are owed.

Practices should have finite goals for their social media programs and target their efforts to patients.

Here's your opportunity to learn what you might want to avoid saying - or doing - next time a patient comes to your medical practice.

Promoting commercial products, like television's Dr. Oz, can present a conflict of interest for physicians.

Congratulations, you've hired a new NP or PA. Now be sure your patients know and understand who they'll be seeing.

Physicians hold a sacred trust to guard their patients' secrets, dignity, and lives. Succumbing to the temptation to vent frustrations is never right.

So many physicians are working hard to improve patient satisfaction. Here's the one the one thing they can do to make the most positive impact.

Physicians are expected to keep personal emotion distanced. Yet, even as we care deeply for our patients, we fail to do the same for ourselves.

It can be challenging to convince patients to sign up for and actively use your medical practice's patient portal. Here are 10 tips from experts.

Anonymous, electronic remarks can be hurtful to your pride and medical practice. Here are four ways to handle potentially detrimental online reviews.

If you can't ignore a bad online patient review and are considering a defamation suit vs. a patient, here are three things to consider first.

Staff-to-patient communication generally reflects what the staff really believes, and that often reflects poorly on a practice.

Patient education programs can help physicians empower their patients to be a partner in their own care, and meet quality metric targets.

Practices face big cash-flow problems as patients shoulder more of their healthcare costs. Here's how to step up patient payment collections.

Use the technology your practice likely already has to improve your patient collection rate.

The PBS documentary is an excellent example of how a patient's mindset leads them to healthcare ownership, not just placing that burden on the physician.

Our pediatric practice has a new policy: no more medical excuse notes. Here's why we did it and how we let everyone know about our new stance.

Having a great collections management policy in place at your practice can serve you very well, and keep your accounts receivable on track.

This fascinating documentary, about improving care while saving money, can teach physicians - and America - a great deal.

A new PBS documentary presents a revival of an old way of thinking in medicine; one that worked well for America for a period of time.

Communication is key as patients are more likely to take their financial obligations seriously when they have a strong relationship with the practice.

Practices can interact with patients in many ways using social media: from community engagement to patient education to crisis communications.

Patients come to a direct-pay practice for improved access to physicians. In order to deliver on that promise, a physician must have the right tools.

It's common knowledge a more engaged patient is a more compliant patient. So why can't medicine bridge the digital divide to connect with patients?

It's time to "bridge the gap" with patients between patient visits. Here's how technology is helping one practice do it.

A growing array of electronic tools are available to patients, but physicians and practices must first embrace them.

Building up your medical practice's social media network, and even acquiring new patients through that network, may be easier than you think.

When patients report bad behavior by your staff, what do you do? Let the Civility CEO help with this and with dealing with office clutter.

Some healthcare systems are having an easier time securing patient engagement than others. Here are some of the successful strategies used at Kaiser.