The Journal of medical practice management : MPM最新文献

Enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) consists of standardized, coordinated, interdisciplinary perioperative care plans. An increasing body of evidence supports the clinical effectiveness of ERAS for a wide range of procedures. ERAS plans been implemented worldwide. Evidence from randomized controlled trials, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses has demonstrated the economic benefits of ERAS.

The Triple Aim has become the guiding light and benchmark by which healthcare organizations plan their future efforts. It has been adopted into healthcare policies with little regard for including the skill sets of compassion and emotional intelligence. The multiple increasing demands on providers of healthcare are unsustainable and will cripple the system, resulting in outcomes that are counter to the Triple Aim goals. Patient engagement with shared decision-making should become the primary focus of care delivery. New delivery models and care plans are unaffordable to far too many patients and payers, despite the efforts of futurists who seek to advance quality and lower costs. Clinical care delivery and patient engagement efforts must be drastically redirected to innovative and sustainable value-based delivery models that support the goals of the Triple Aim.

E-mail may rule the world in other types of businesses, but for medical practices, the telephone remains the primary mode of communication with patients, specialists, and pharmacies. From making appointments to calling in prescriptions, telephones are essential to patient care. With technology changing very quickly and new capabilities coming into the medical practice, such as telemedicine and Skype, you need to know your options when choosing a new telephone system. The possibilities include on-site, cloud, and hybrid networked solutions. A wide variety of features and capabilities are available, from dozens of vendors. Of course, no matter what telephone solution you choose, you must meet regulatory compliance, particularly HIPAA, and Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard if you take credit cards. And it has to be affordable, reliable, and long lasting. This article explores what medical practices need to know when choosing a new business telephone system in order to find the right solutions for their businesses.

The pathway to professional development does not require a start or end date. Professional development is a perpetual process that is set into motion the day you first ask "why?" or "how?" Anyone who has spent time with a toddler knows that the endless pursuit of knowledge and, therefore, intellectual growth starts at a very young age. As we mature, we refine our questions beyond the whys and hows and start the professional development journey. Throughout each academic pursuit, we accomplish another rung on the ladder of our achievements. As we graduate from kindergarten, grade school, high school, and college, we easily point to the parchment most of these ceremonious events yield. Once we start our careers, though, what do we have to show for our professional development efforts? The mountains of literature provide a constant reminder of what you have left to learn. Most professions provide a formal pathway to aid in professional development, and medical practice management is no exception. The certification and fellowship program and process available from the Medical Group Management Association provides a system to map your journey of professional development--complete with its own version of parchment. This article explains why you would want to pursue professional development in the form of certification and Fellowship.

Physicians and allied health staff in healthcare are finding themselves in situations characterized by uncertainty, chaos, and ambiguity, with high levels of burnout. A major influence is an aging U.S. population, resulting in increasing cost and reimbursement pressures. Medical group practices need leaders who have the capability to thrive in this environment. This article presents an integrated leadership model offering strategies and insights gained from keeping a journal for 40 years. Strategies to be shared include leading self through learning, leading others by developing relationships, leading organizations by achieving excellence, and achieving work-life integration and synergy.

A hospital is considering deploying a radiofrequency identification (RFID) system and setting up a new "discharge lounge" to improve the patient discharge process. This study uses computer simulation to model and compare the current process and the new process, and it assesses the impact of the RFID system and the discharge lounge on the process in terms of resource utilization and time taken in the process. The simulation results regarding resource utilization suggest that the RFID system can slightly relieve the burden on all resources, whereas the RFID system and the discharge lounge together can significantly mitigate the nurses' tasks. The simulation results in terms of the time taken demonstrate that the RFID system can shorten patient wait times, staff busy times, and bed occupation times. The results of the study could prove helpful to others who are considering the use of an RFID system in the patient discharge process in hospitals or similar processes.

This article reviews the changes to CPT 2016, with emphasis on the way CPT services will be provided in the future. Some of the newer codes are designed for reimbursable services provided by the medical clinical staff. In addition to the CPT changes, there are changes to the Medicare fee-for service Physician Fee Schedule. Review of these changes provides the reader with a snapshot of how healthcare will be provided and reimbursed in the future.

To a significant degree, "healthcare reform" is a movement to change how both physicians and healthcare facilities are compensated, with value replacing volume as the key compensation metric. The goal of this movement has not yet been accomplished, but the process is accelerating. In this article, we track how the arc of physician compensation is bending, how the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act will drive further changes to physician compensation models, and how these changes may affect physician practice patterns and physician staffing in the future.