It’s well known that the retail industry has a nasty habit of overreliance on the holiday season to buffer slower sales throughout the year. When the economy is strong, retail sales typically follow, and investors are happy. When the economy falters or when brick-and-mortar retail is disrupted by lowercost, more-convenient alternatives, investors feel a bit under the weather. Similarly, the urgent care dilemma has always been a relative dependence on flu season to account for …
Read MoreAnalytics and Performance Metrics: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
It seems like metrics and analytics are the buzzwords to watch in 2016. Everyone— from health-care administrators to carwash operators—is looking for ways to measure best practices, key business drivers, and employee performance to stand out. Even my beloved Cleveland Browns became the first team in professional football to hire a chief strategy officer to apply analytics in picking players who give the team its best chance of winning. Health care itself is into analytics, …
Read MoreProvider Credentialing: An 800-Pound Gorilla
Credentialing has become a recurring nightmare for physicians of all specialties, in every state and in every practice setting. Eager for a fresh start, and energized by new opportunity, we decide to make a job change. Recruiters colorfully praise these openings, as if every job pays more than our current one, is closer to parks and culture, and exists in a region with a lower cost of living and, of course, better weather. After a …
Read MoreFrom Good to Great: A Guide for the Urgent Care Provider
It’s easy to think that all the steps we physicians and advanced practice providers must take before we are professionals make us great. After all, doesn’t everyone admire our impressive signature with its collection of professional certifications at the end? Not so fast. Greatness is not conferred or bestowed by degrees or certifications, and often it isn’t officially recognized. Instead, greatness is practiced, like yoga or karate. It is never a final achievement; it is …
Read MoreFirst and Ten: A Decade of JUCM
As we head into a new year at JUCM, our tenth, it is a natural time to reflect on our journal’s history and our goals for the future. Just being able to celebrate a 10th anniversary is nothing short of a miracle. Medical publishing has been in transition for some time, and the number of traditional journals is decreasing. Information, even complex clinical information, is now available with the click of a button. Considering the …
Read MoreRediscovering Your Service Mission
It comes as no surprise to anyone that health care is broken. Too many interest groups, too much regulation, too many poorly aligned incentives, too many unrealistic expectations, and too many myopic solutions. Worse, the physician voice has been weakened and handicapped by a combination of our patient-first mission and by the distraction inherent in a profoundly complicated professional discipline. Think of it this way: If your primary mission was profit and the financial engineering …
Read MoreValue-Based Reimbursement Is Premature, But That Won’t Stop It
Lee A. Resnick, MD, FAAFP Private payor reimbursement trends nearly always follow Medicare’s lead, and at no other time in history has the physician reimbursement model been so scrutinized. In an attempt to control unwieldly healthcare spending, payors are understandably looking to be creative. When they look at the drivers for increased health spending, one thing is clear: Diagnostic testing and imaging services grew far faster since 2000 than any other health-care service. According to …
Read MoreEHR Interoperability: A Bridge to Nowhere
Lee A. Resnick, MD, FAAFP In the beginning, interoperability and health information exchange (HIE) were key selling points for physicians considering adoption of and investment in electronic health records (EHRs), but today most are left feeling misled, stranded on a bridge that leads nowhere. The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMMS) defines EHR interoperability as “the ability of different information technology systems and software applications to communicate, exchange data, and use the information that …
Read MoreMaintenance of Certification: A Punch in the Gut
In an era of plummeting leverage and influence over health care and the well-being of our practices and patients, physicians desperately need representation. Our collective voice has been muzzled and utterly dismissed when it comes to health-care delivery and economics. We have essentially been relegated to serving as the voice of public health and clinical best practice, nothing more. How did we get here, and what are our representatives in our professional organizations doing to …
Read More“Why Are You Calling Me?” How to Fix Relationships with Emergency Departments
Lee A. Resnick, MD, FAAFP In my last column I covered the 3 main causes of poor communication in transferring patients from urgent care centers to emergency departments (EDs). I discussed how poor communication creates risk, disrupts work flow, and erodes professional satisfaction. Poor interprofessional relationships and inadequate planning and structure are creating an environment ripe for these breakdowns. Reversing the trend requires a focus on rehabilitating relationships, initiating outreach, and developing coordinated policies and …
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