In any organization, it’s not unusual for some, if not all of the members to be somewhat resistant to change. This is natural, since we spend a lot of time learning how to work with a particular system, and once employees have mastered a certain way of doing things, they would find it wasteful to have to learn something new. An example of this situation can be seen in some people’s resistance to learning about ICD codes, despite governmental action to prompt medical organizations to get ready as soon as possible.

Medical practice managers, owners, and the founding physicians take great pains to develop a working environment that helps them see more patients while maintaining tight control over your most vital resources, chiefly staff time and medical expertise. If you have been growing concerned that your medical practice is not doing its best possible work, you’ll want to sit down and consider what the problem might be. It’s useful to investigate what things you are doing right and what areas could stand to see some much-needed improvement. Here are three things holding your practice back from better patient care that you can start focusing more attention on.

Given the fact that your team of medical professionals may see thousands of patients every year, there are bound to be some occasions when you find yourself confronted with angry patients. When patients are unhappy, it can be a stressful experience for your staff as well as for other patients who may happen to be nearby when voices are raised in anger. Medical problems can be fraught with high tension, anxiety, and fear, and people sometimes react to situations with more anger than they intend or even realize at the point of outburst. It’s useful to adopt a compassionate and understanding attitude while making sure that all parties feel respected and not threatened. To help you and your team deal with such difficult situations, here are three rules for addressing angry patients more successfully.

You’ve managed to build up a great team of medical professionals at your practice, from nurses and doctors to the people providing them support in the back office and at reception. However, like any prudent owner or manager of a thriving medical organization, you are always on the lookout for ways to improve conditions and provide the best possible care for your loyal patients. In fact, one of the most important ways you can keep a practice financially secure and successful is to do such a great job that your patients serve as ambassadors and refer new patients to your facility. If you want to improve your medical staff, here are five things that you can give them today to step up their game.

As the owner or manager of a well-respected oncology practice, you know that it would be a mistake to rest on your laurels or accept your current level of service as the best your staff is capable of providing. There is always room for improvement, and savvy medical professionals will take the necessary measures to step up the quality of their work. With that in mind, here are three steps that you can take to bring your oncology practice from good to great.

Burnout is a serious issue afflicting our nation’s most talented doctors and nurses. It’s of vital importance that medical practice managers institute policies and set up procedures to keep their medical professionals from spreading themselves too thinly. Read on to learn more about how to keep your best nurses and doctors from burning out and maintaining their abilities to provide excellent care to patients on a consistent basis.

Every medical practice that focuses on a particular specialty will have unique challenges to contend with, and oncology is no exception. With a wide variety of types of cancer to diagnose, assess, and develop a treatment strategy for, oncologists must balance the level of compassion and honesty as they prepare their patients for their upcoming treatments and ongoing surveillance and testing. Oncologists are making great strides in treating cancers, with new techniques, medicines, and protocols being developed all the time to help them handle this disease in all its forms. The stakes are high, and maintaining the highest standards of care requires enormous resources from medical professionals as they seek to improve the lives of their patients. With that in mind, here is an overview of four things every oncologist should be focusing on during evaluation, treatment, and follow-up encounters with the people for which they are providing care.

The following is an excerpt from an article that appeared on EHR Intelligence. It was written by Kyle Murphy, PhD. The most recent run of ICD-10 acknowledgement testing by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) revealed no problems with the Medicare Fee-for-service (FFS) claims systems but did show a lower rate nationally of accepted test claims as compared to previous testing in March. “Acceptance rates improved throughout the week with Friday’s acceptance rate for test claims at 87 percent,” the federal agency said in Medicare Learning Network (MLN) Connects update on Monday. “Nationally, CMS accepted 76 percent of total test claims. Testing did not identify any issues with the Medicare FFS claims systems.”

As an astute medical professional or as a manager or owner of a medical practice, you are aware of the impending required change from ICD-9 as mandated by CMS. Organizations need to make the transition from ICD-9 to ICD-10 by October 1, 2015. The code change is organized by the World Health Organization, which creates, manages, and updates ICD codes. Understanding the differences between ICD-9 and ICD-10 will help you and your team get prepared for the upcoming change. It’s natural to ask what is the most significant change when switching from ICD-9 to ICD-10? Since the change is mandatory, your staff really has no choice in making the switch, but it is important to know why they must do so.

How well do you think your dermatology practice is being managed lately? If you’re not using a robust computer system and the finest available dermatology-oriented software, it’s likely that you’ve been making do with generic medical practice applications or an outdated legacy system. Certainly, conventional electronic health record applications can help you improve how you do work, but dermatology-oriented EHR systems are a much better option. Why settle for one size fits all when you can get the specialized software that your organization could really benefit from? Managing a dermatology practice is much easier when you have dedicated software that is designed to meet the needs of your specialty and the particular needs of your patients.