Are you experiencing a productivity barrier? Perhaps you have an EHR adoption issue and/or a fundamental EHR workflow issue? Or possibly you have problems with getting timely results from the lab or the imaging department. If any of these things sound familiar, you may have a problem with “Left Without Being Seen (LWBS)” in your organization. Maybe patients are not feeling welcomed and like they are a priority. You may be surprised to know that some of these issues can be addressed by changing your organization’s Culture. If the issue is productivity related, there is a cure for that.

Your Medical Practice’s success depends ultimately on one very important thing: The way you treat your customers. Perhaps, the most critical point for your success to shine comes in how you treat your customers when they make a complaint. There are a variety of reasons one of your patients may make a complaint. Maybe they’re unhappy with the cost of the visit. Maybe their prescription did not get faxed to the correct pharmacy. They may not agree with the plan of treatment they have been given. No matter what the complaint is, each complaint can be canopied under: “Unmet…

Imagine: You wake up one morning feeling absolutely awful. Your body aches. Your nose is running. The room feels like it’s spinning. You’re afraid if you try to eat breakfast you won’t be able to keep it down. You get your spouse to drive you to the doctor. You approach the front desk and try to check in, but the girl behind the glass just stares blankly at you, not understanding a word you are saying. She speaks back, and you also have a hard time understanding her. Another young woman approaches and speaks to you, her words garbled. You understand most of what she says…

One of the most important features of your medical practice is your front desk staff. Of course, they aren’t directly providing care for the patients that drop by your clinic or office, but they are the face of your business. If your front desk is lazy or rude, it doesn’t matter how amazing the care you provide is… odds are, patients aren’t going to want to come back if they had a bad experience before seeing you. A bad front desk staff can sour the already negative feelings associated with having to visit a doctor. People want to feel like they are cared about when…

Some changes are coming to Medicare numbers and cards soon. Starting in April 2018 the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will start distributing these new cards to their members with complete transition aimed for April 2019. Current and future members, will all receive a version of these updated cards. There will be a transition period that lasts until the end of 2019. Although, your business processes and systems for Medicare billing, claims status, eligibility must be ready by April 2018 for transactions. So, what’s going to be different? Social Security Numbers (SSN)…

It’s always hard to get money from patients when they visit your healthcare establishment, especially when they are suddenly shocked by a high deductible price. Often, the patients will get upset with you, even though the price of their deductible isn’t your fault. You don’t want to be the bad guy and make them pay that much, but you are a business, after all, and you need revenue to keep your business going. They may want to pay later, but that may result in you not getting paid. So, what’s the best way to handle this situation? Patients aren’t often prepared to…

This past week a friend of mine visited a medical practice clinic. Her visit lasted less than four minutes. That would be a majorly impressive record if the connotation within that sentence allowed for only one (positive) result. Unfortunately, the record has a less than impressive ending, for both the patient and the medical practice. How the Visit Started … My friend woke up with a severe pain in her back. Unable to drive, she called a neighbor to help shuttle her 20 miles to the nearest medical practice facility. As she shuffled into the building and up to the check-in area, she was…