HCPro.com: The Doctor's Office

Every issue of The Doctor's Office offers practice management and marketing ideas that can save you money-plus marketing suggestions that can grow your practice.

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September 2008 (Volume 27, Issue 9)	view entire issue

Keeping the peace among your practice's employees
Forget what your parents taught you about treating people the way you would like to be treated. Instead, start treating others the way they want to be treated. That's advice from William Moskal, senior partner at IRI Consultants to Management, a Detroit-based firm that focuses on human performance management and employee relations. Moskal says the underlying concept of this advice rings true, particularly when handling personality and behavioral issues among employees.

Top ways to conduct a continual staff performance review
Many physician practices consider staff performance evaluations to be a burdensome annual task. As a result, they give everyone the same salary increase as an easy solution. However, this is a disservice to their staff members, says Dorothy R. Sweeney, a private medical management consultant in Glenside, PA. "It's important that the staff knows where they are [with their performance] and the manager needs to stay on top of this," Sweeney says.

An effective exit interview generates honest feedback
When an employee decides to leave your practice, do not assume that he or she is no longer valuable to you. Whether the loss is for voluntary or involuntary reasons, you may have questions about the employee's experience while at your practice. The best way to receive honest feedback from the employee and provide insight to your practice, staff, and management is to carefully plan an exit interview. By asking the right questions and noting the appropriate information, you can determine the key reasons why the employee is leaving. Most importantly, the responses may help you learn how to prevent a similar loss from happening.

Put in the extra care when coding consultations in your practice
E/M codes are among the major categories of codes that are frequently examined by third-party insurance auditors. Medicare auditors recently have seen many cases in which documentation guidelines are not followed adequately to support a consultation code. The key reason the documentation is scrutinized is because the reimbursements for consultations are higher than the reimbursement levels for office visits of similar documentation levels. In most instances, if the guidelines were not accurately followed, the consultation was either downcoded or denied. In either case, money is taken back from the practice or the physician. To ensure that the documentation matches the coding, consider the following guidelines.

Thirteen common HR mistakes and how to fix them
Personnel issues can be one of the most difficult aspects of practice management. And according to the experts PPS consulted, there are several common mistakes that that can make HR even more challenging. They identified 13 common problems and offered insight on how to avoid or remedy them. 1. Hiring for experience, not fit. Practices often hire individuals who are a bad fit in terms of personality and temperament, and it most frequently happens in the front office, says Elizabeth W. Woodcock, MBA, FACMPE, CPC, principal of Woodcock & Associates in Atlanta.

Understanding, accomodating generational differences
Some veteran doctors take offense at the high value younger physicians place on work-life balance, flexibility, and limited leadership commitment, saying it's disloyal and signifies a poor work ethic. However, there are younger physicians who say they've developed some of these views after witnessing older doctors' struggles in the field, and they don't want to go down the same road.

Other recently-published articles from The Doctor's Office:

TDO 2008 index

Strive to manage your focus rather than your time

Follow the revenue stream to maximize reimbursement

What you need to know before selling your practice

Perfect the art of presence when using technology

Combat EMR slowdown, expense with a team approach

Focus on phones to improve service and efficiency

On a tight schedule: Tips to stay on track

Don’t let the stalled economy halt your practice’s progress

Make the most of nonphysician practitioner resources

Attract physicians in today’s competitive, complex environment

Public vs. private school: Factor in your child’s needs and goals

Ensure employee retention in a turbulent field

Redesigning the workweek

Money isn’t everything, but ...

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