Make a New Year’s Resolution to Improve Patient Retention

Everyone knows that taking steps to retain existing patients is more cost-effective than engaging in marketing activities to attract new ones. Once you have loyal patients in your practice, to keep them, you typically need only to meet their expectation of delivering quality care and providing efficient, friendly service. Sounds simple, right? It is. But in too many instances, patients transfer their care to other practitioners because they feel that their most basic needs are not being met. Here are three areas to focus on this year if one of your practice resolutions is to retain the patients you have.

Make your practice accessible.  If patients consistently have to wait days to be seen for an acute problem or weeks (if not months) to get on the schedule for a non-emergent issue, you are at risk of losing patients to a practice that has openings within a more reasonable time frame. We live in a world of instant everything. Even though, most likely, no harm will come from a patient waiting a couple of weeks to have a suspiciouslooking mole checked out, if you’re that patient and anxious about the mole, every day of waiting matters. Read the rest of this entry »

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Workplace Wellness Programs that Stick

If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you might recall our article, Launching a Staff Wellness Program, posted last spring. Relatively few medical practices sponsor organized wellness initiatives aimed at employees, though many do have small groups within the office who support one another to lose weight, exercise more, or stop smoking. Watch for these casual support systems to morph into more formal programs in the coming years as practices seek to reduce the cost of providing health insurance and curb the number of employee sick days.

Is your practice ready to get serious about wellness? If so, re-read the post linked above, poll staff about which health and fitness goals they’re most interested in, determine a start date for your program, and then make it stick throughout 2012 by following these guidelines. Read the rest of this entry »

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Start the New Year Clutter-Free

Every so often, a study comes out detailing how much time people who work in offices waste looking for papers, files and other essentials. Some reports have tagged the figure at as much as an hour a day. The problem appears to be two-fold: poor or non-existent systems for keeping track of things, and excess clutter. Uncluttering and organizing your office and individual work stations can help boost productivity and reduce frustration that leads to stress. Follow this plan to start the upcoming new year clutter-free.

Depending on the depth of clutter you have around your office, decide if it’s worthwhile to declare a “de-cluttering day” when everyone comes in to work exclusively on dealing with the mess, or if it makes more sense to direct each staff member to spend a set amount of time (maybe 20-30 minutes a day) to purge and organize their work areas over the course of a few weeks or a month. Take “before and after” pictures, just for fun.

Train staff to use the “touch it once” system. This means that mail, reports, files and documents should, ideally, be dealt with only once. Picking up the same item again and again before deciding to take action on it, file it or toss it creates unnecessary clutter, and it wastes time to boot. Read the rest of this entry »

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Success Strategy: Set One Big Goal for 2012

The beginning of a new year naturally feels like a fresh start, when all things seem possible. It’s tempting to get caught up in the excitement and make long lists of tasks and goals to accomplish, only to find enthusiasm waning (or completely gone) by the end of January. One technique to avoid this rollercoaster is to limit yourself to a single big practice goal for the year. Consider it your annual BHAG (“big hairy audacious goal”–a term coined by the authors of Built to Last, a popular business book from the mid-90s.) Declaring a BHAG doesn’t mean you won’t also achieve additional smaller goals throughout the year, but having one major intent for the year can help keep you focused and more likely to experience success.

Consider these questions as you think about what your 2012 BHAG should be: Read the rest of this entry »

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NLRB (National Labor Relations Board )Postpones Effective Date of New Posting Rule to April 30, 2012 from January 31, 2012.

The delay is at the request of the Washington D.C. federal court, due to the court  currently hearing a legal challenge regarding the rule. Challenges such as this one are not unusual regarding new federal posting requirements. The NLRB states that postponing the effective date will facilitate the resolution of the legal challenges.

Those who have already bought the posters  are in 100% compliance with the posting requirement.   This new posting is still expected to go into effect … just at a later date than expected.

Posters ordered at this time are in compliance with the requirement that nearly all private-sector employers  notify employees of their rights under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) by posting a notice.

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ICD-10: Best Sources for Reliable Information

The American Medical Association (AMA), at its November 15, 2011, House of Delegates meeting, voted to “work vigorously to stop implementation of ICD-10.” The AMA contends that ICD-10 (scheduled to go into effect on October 1, 2013, and impact virtually every physician and healthcare organization in the country) will not benefit patients and will create “significant burdens” on medical practices. Whether lawmakers will be influenced by the AMA’s stance is yet to be seen, but no matter what unfolds between now and next October, it will be important for all practices to keep an eye on this situation, continue to gather good information, and prepare for change. Here are several good resources to help you get the facts you need about ICD-10. Read the rest of this entry »

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