Your Practice Message

October 23, 2008 – 10:44 am

I’ve talked a lot about marketing your practice in the last month – making sure to over promise and over deliver by capitalizing on your practice’s strengths; the importance of integrating logos in your marketing media; and how first impressions count. Now it’s time to talk about your practice message.

Jeremy Bullmore, author of Apples, Insights and Mad Inventors: An Entertaining Analysis of Modern Marketing once said, “Consumers build an image [of a brand] as birds build nests. From the scraps and straws they chance upon.” I say don’t make your patients scrap around for information about your practice, instead develop a message and hand them the nest.

Your practice message is about making that first impression. It will be one of the first selling points of your practice to prospective patients and clients. And if they like your message, they are likely to look further into what you have to offer as a practice.

As you start to develop your message, ask yourself these three questions:    Read the rest of this entry »

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You can help!

October 20, 2008 – 7:08 am

It’s Monday morning and I have major writer’s block. So I am asking for your help! What would you like to read about on Practice Essentials? Are there particular topics that interest you? It’s easy to send us your ideas. You can either:

  1. Send an email to information@medicalartspress.com Subject line: Topics

OR

  1. Post your suggestion in the comment section of this post

I can’t wait to hear your suggestions!

-Mary

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Branding Your Practice Using a Logo

October 15, 2008 – 1:27 pm

Let’s play word association. I will list a series of words and for each word say the first thing that comes to mind.

The Golden Arches
Jared
Peacock
Tony the Tiger
Colonel Sanders

I’m going to bet you named a company’s name for at least four out of five of the list above. In order, here were my answers to the list: McDonalds, Subway, NBC, Frosted Flakes and Kentucky Fried Chicken.

I wanted to start this post with this exercise to show how effective logos and a spokesperson can be for branding. The purpose of branding your practice is to ensure it is not only recognizable by current patients and prospective patients, but also recognizable within the marketplace. The examples above, I admit, are on a very large level, but the idea that a logo is the core of branding any business applies to all businesses – even yours. So, the next time you’re thinking about a logo remember these tips: Read the rest of this entry »

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Breast Cancer Awareness Month

October 9, 2008 – 3:32 pm

Once a year we come together as advocates, survivors, mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, children, aunts, uncles, women and men to create awareness about breast cancer.  The world around us turns pink as we celebrate the survivors and honor the lives of loved ones lost to breast cancer. 

I lost my grandmother to breast cancer fourteen years ago.  She was a vibrant woman full of life.  As October approaches every year, I remember her spirit and zest for life, her enthusiasm for malls and winning at cards.  It is her memory and all of the strong women around me that are reminders of the importance of creating awareness and supporting research to give hope to the generations to come. 

A few weeks ago, a few fellow co-workers and I walked the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure in Chicago.  It was an amazing experience, as thousands of people came out to support such an important cause.  Here are a few pictures from the walk.

A group photo before the walk… 

breast-cancer-group.bmp
 
  

Read the rest of this entry »

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OOPS!

October 8, 2008 – 10:08 am

As you may have noticed, our blog was having technical difficulties the past two days.  We would like to apologize for the error.  It’s been fixed!

Check back tomorrow to see pictures of our team participating in the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Walk in Chicago.

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Are your prescription pads updated with the new tamper-resistant regulations that go into effect October 1, 2008?

September 22, 2008 – 2:50 pm

By now just about everyone is aware of the new regulations affecting prescriptions for Medicaid patients.

For those who may have not heard, this is the second and final implementation phase for the Medicaid prescription policy required by section 7002(b) of the U.S. Troop Readiness, Veterans’ Care, Katrina Recovery, and Iraq Accountability Appropriations Act of 2007.

Since April 1, 2007, the government has required prescriptions for Medicaid patients to have one feature from one of the three categories to comply with tamper-resistance provisions.

Prescriptions for Medicaid patients must be written on tamper-resistant prescription pads that contain at least one feature from the three security categories listed below. Medical practices may possibly need to change prescription pads or alter their print formatting for Medicaid prescriptions to comply. Each state must define the features it will use. (For detailed information on the requirements, please visit the State Medicaid Director letter here.)

Baseline Characteristics of Safety Features:

  • One or more industry-recognized features designed to prevent unauthorized copying of a completed or blank prescription form;
  • One or more industry-recognized features designed to prevent the erasure or modification of information written on the prescription by the prescriber; and
  • One or more industry-recognized features designed to prevent the use of counterfeit prescription forms.*

CMS-issued statement regarding the law change:
http://www.cms.hhs.gov/center/intergovernmental.asp

Locate your state pharmacy board’s contact information:
http://www.medicalartspress.com/content/iw/catalog/promotion/centers/rx-center/rx-state-boards.aspx

Top questions regarding tamper-resistant Rx pads:
http://www.cms.hhs.gov/DeficitReductionAct/Downloads/MIPTRPFAQs9122007.pdf

Be compliant and ready for the October 1, 2008 deadline today.
http://www.medicalartspress.com/Catalog/Browse/skuset.aspx?PageType=2&SkuSetID=43878&bcFlag=True&bcSCatId=13&bcS
CatName=Forms+&bcCatId=354&bcCatName=Rx+Blanks

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