How to Improve Productivity in Healthcare

Originally published on February 28, 2017 at www.lmshealthpro.com.

By Kristen Brady

The movement from volume to value based care, as well as alternative payment models are going to require institutions to discover new methods of increasing productivity.

"In healthcare today, an increase in productivity is a skill" writes Joe Flower in an article for Hospitals and Health Networks.

Even though it might not be simple to do more with less, it’s possible to discover methods of being more productive. Below are some of his recommendations:

If you change your structure of payment, be certain your productivity metric will match it. It’ll make it simpler to notice productivity problems. Flower utilizes the example of an institution which moves a pain office from a model that is fee-for-service to a per-employee-per-month agreement for a warehousing business. If the institution performs an MRI on all patients, it’ll raise costs and lower productivity.

Redesign all EHRs to reflect clinical workflow. Many systems are not built around patient needs or clinician workflow. The poor interface and poor structure causes productivity problems.

Be certain new technologies help with productivity. Newer technology, like robotics and artificial intelligence, actually can slow productivity if it makes clinicians adapt to this technology rather than being certain the technology meets the necessities of clinical workflow. However, if utilized in the right way, it may decrease administrative tasks and mistakes. Flower states great examples of technologies which have increased productivity are IBM Watson and UT MD Anderson Cancer Center’s Oncology Expert Advisor.

And last but not least, lobby against all increased regulations. It is hard for any institution to completely comply with all the regulations presently in place. Joe Flower advocates for providers to organize and lobby to persuade state and federal agencies and additional regulators to take data from a standardized information set derived right from each institution’s electronic records.

For more details contact Leading Management Solutions at (407) 674-1916.

Leading Management Solutions helps medical practice leaders identify ways to improve operations to increase revenue, employee engagement, and patient satisfaction. Learn more about us at www.lmshealthpro.com.

About the Author:

Kristen Brady is the founder and owner of Kaboom Social Media, your social media marketing and content specialists! Follow her on Twitter: @kb54927

In Healthcare, Content is Still King

Originally published on February 28, 2017 at www.lmshealthpro.com.

By Kristen Brady

By now nearly everyone has heard this phrase: “Content is king.” Therefore, who initially mentioned this phrase? And when? Plus, is it still a fact on the Web?

Generally, Bill Gates gets credit for it, for an essay that he published in January of 1996.

Almost 20 years later, some say that social media knocked content off its throne. They state that social media’s power will lie in its gigantic distribution network, with millions of users of YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, amongst others.

The argument is that as a social media user who has a lot of friends online posts an interesting photo, quote or video on Pinterest, Twitter or Facebook, it’ll go viral because of that user’s massive network.

They are wrong. Yes, the big network helps. However, the post first must be intriguing. So, social media might be queen, yet content still is king.

And how do I know? Because Google tells me so.

There is an abundance of proof in health care. Before individuals search for specialist physicians, they usually first look for data regarding their health condition and its potential treatment. The search engines confirm these facts:

Month-to-month searches on Google

Breast cancer	3,350,000	Oncologist	823,000
Lung cancer	1,220,000	Cancer doctor	60,500
Colorectal cancer	823,000	Cancer specialist	33,100
Bladder cancer	301,000

Around 4 times as many online searchers browse data on breast cancer as for data on oncologists.

Should a practice try to capture the attention of those searchers who are not yet searching for doctors?

The answer is “absolutely!” Why not? Sooner or later they’ll be browsing doctors. Why ignore 5/6 of your potential patients?

For medical practices, healthcare content is not prohibitively costly. Virtually all of it already is in a physician’s head.

Therefore, no matter how small or large your medical practice, dear physician, give data foragers what they desire on your site and you automatically have built interest and trust in your capability of helping them.

Leading Management Solutions offers Marketing, Digital Marketing, and Social Media Services to healthcare practices.  We offer weekly blog posts written by professional writers with direct knowledge of healthcare management and search engine optimization. 

For more details contact us at (407) 674-1916.

Leading Management Solutions helps medical practice leaders identify ways to improve operations to increase revenue, employee engagement, and patient satisfaction. Learn more about us at www.lmshealthpro.com.

About the Author:

Kristen Brady is the founder and owner of Kaboom Social Media, your social media marketing and content specialists! Follow her on Twitter: @kb54927

Blogging for Specialist Doctors

Originally posted on February 12, 2017 at www.lmshealthpro.com. 

By Kristen Brady

For sub-specialists and specialists, new clinical information and conditions seldom evolve quite as voluminously or quickly as with primary care. The net effect is that updates to websites may be at around 50% the frequency: at least approximately one time each two months. This type of modest frequency will convey some sense of regular activity on a website.

Usually, a blog posting is the most effective, easiest update to a practice’s site, as blogs may be conversational in tone. Also, they do not require a referenced, more structured form of doctor-patient writing mandated by journals or website articles with the goal of broadening patient education.

As with the instance for primary-care bloggers, specialists subjects may reflect what generally is in the recent news that is pertinent to that specialty. Perhaps the best way of coming up with ideas rapidly is to perform a search for any specialty-associated treatment or condition on Google News.

Or just do a quick search on one of the health-consumer-related sites like CNN Health, WebMD, or MedLinePlus, the patient-associated website published by the NIH.

What are some blog ideas for specialists?

Cardiology: New studies reveal more about why eating red meat is bad for your heart – intestinal bacteria will convert carnitine, the protein building block which especially is plentiful in venison, lamb and beef, into compounds which speed up thickening and hardening of artery walls. Therefore, how much red meat are you able to safely consume?

Neurology: Now that cannabis is legal in some areas, what do studies reveal about its long-range effects on brain functioning?

Pulmonology: In all the excitement with electronic cigarettes as a healthier alternative to traditional cigarettes, what are some of the hidden risks?

Such blogs can have not just a positive effect on consumers and assist in building trust in the providers; they also can assist in improving search engine rankings, therefore boosting providers’ online visibility.

Leading Management Solutions offers Marketing, Digital Marketing, and Social Media Services to healthcare practices.  We offer weekly blog posts written by professional writers with direct knowledge of healthcare management and search engine optimization. For more details, contact us at (407) 674-1916.

Leading Management Solutions helps medical practice leaders identify ways to improve operations to increase revenue, employee engagement, and patient satisfaction. Learn more about us at www.lmshealthpro.com.

About the Author:

Kristen Brady is the founder and owner of Kaboom Social Media, your social media marketing and content specialists! Follow her on Twitter: @kb54927