You could search for and test out a whole bunch of different todo apps. OR you could use the task management system already built into your EMR. Create tasks for yourself, or assign them to your team members. Whatever works for you. Plus, email reminders help keep you accountable and on top of things. To freshen up on how task management works inside Atlas, check out the video below, or read this support article.
September 7, 2017
September 5, 2017
Go Ahead, Treat Your Patients Slowly.
We humans can’t help but shove as much as possible into one minute. One hour. One day. We’re rewarded for doing it, too. Society says that the more you check off your list, the more productive you are. And by default, then, the more productive you are, the more successful you are. So, we rush. We search for ways to skip steps and still get the same result. We fill downtime with more stuff in the name of said productivity.
We load up our arms with more grocery bags than we can carry because we simply refuse to waste time making two trips.
We pull out our phones at red lights so we can jump on the email that came through five seconds ago. Or check Facebook…
We give patients seven minutes of our time. And we spend four of those thinking about what’s waiting for us in the next exam room.
Where has that gotten us? Actually, it’s making us sick. Read more
August 31, 2017
Marketing Your DPC Practice – How Everyone Else Does it.
The best marketing strategy is a good business model. It’s a value proposition. Think about it this way: it’s really easy to sell a great product, and it’s really difficult to sell a not-so-great product. Start from the beginning! DPC’s high-value proposition often looks like this: unlimited visits, no copay, free procedures, wholesale meds and labs, up to 95% off and cheaper insurance – that is a huge value proposition that you can sell – no matter what you do, your patients are going to be happier. You’ll find more foundational tips on marketing your DPC practice over in the marketing course of the DPC Curriculum.
You’re Better at This Than You Think. Honestly.
Even though the idea of telling the world all about the great things you have to offer might make your stomach churn, rest assured you already have the skills needed to sell and market your practice. (We wrote all about that over here.) Marketing and sales is largely about having a conversation. Talking to people and answering their questions. You already have the answers, and with knowledge comes confidence.
It’s Time to Walk the Walk.
So once you have that foundation laid, you can do some external marketing. That all sounds good in theory, right? If you’re curious about what that actually means, here are some ideas on places to start networking right in your own community. Read more
August 29, 2017
How To Be A Good Businessperson AND Take Your Oath Seriously.
It’s true. Sometimes doctors struggle with the idea of innovating in the space of business. Some docs used to think you couldn’t do both – you couldn’t be a good businessperson and really take your oath seriously, meaning, care about patients. The foundation of DPC allows you to flip that theory on its head! We take a very bold stance now to say that really embracing and holding true to our oath of “do no harm” must also mean do no financial harm.
We must continually push ourselves to find ways to innovate that bring value to our patients.
For example. Direct Care offers wholesale medications, so most of the time they’re somewhere around 90 – 95% off. It’s literally ten times cheaper to get your medications through Direct Care than Walmart. Take Immitrex for example. (Use GoodRx.com to price check.) Depending on your area, Immitrex is anywhere from $88 to $256 for the generic version. But the wholesale price is $6. And the patient pays $6. Let that sink in! How long did doctors struggle with patients who couldn’t afford their medications only because we complained about the system rather than find a way to fix it ourselves?
As a patient, you don’t have to be rich to like more money, but if you’re struggling financially or working a low-paying job, those savings are even more significant. That’s time back with your family – not to mention a better quality of life. Direct primary care removes all those hurdles.
Traditional healthcare had a culture of either learned helplessness, or groupthink. It has historically lacked a culture of “Innovate, Help and Build” because it always felt that a wall was built by insurance and government. If they didn’t pay for it, then by default we couldn’t do it. And us docs were so busy seeing 30, 40 even 50 people a day that we had no choice but to focus on the task at hand rather than our future ability to practice medicine. Read more
August 24, 2017
What’s New in Atlas.md? Making Multiple Locations Work for Your Practice.
Lots of practices have multiple locations, which is fantastic. But each of you are growing a little bit differently, and Atlas wants to account for that.
We’ve added support for more location flexibility so you can run your practice however it works best for you and your patients. We’ll run through the details so you can get back to it.
Inventory Selection Flexibility
Now when you write a new prescription, you can choose from which location’s inventory you’re dispensing. Pretty great, right?
So if you’re a doctor who floats between branches and you find yourself dispensing from one location today and another tomorrow, now you can accurately dispense from the correct location no matter where you are.
That goes for patients, too! If you encourage patients to go to whichever branch location is more convenient for them, you can dispense from whichever location they choose. This added flexibility makes properly managing inventory more convenient for you. Read more
August 14, 2017
Feature Review: Listing Multiple Credit Cards
The ability to list multiple credit cards affects credit card management in three areas of Atlas.md: the main part of the EMR, the online bill pay pages (which are accessible directly by patients) and in the Patient Access iOS app. Patients can store an unlimited number of credit cards on file, which means you (and they) can choose which one is used when a manual payment is added. Refresh your knowledge of how it all works so you can make sure you’re offering your patients the best service possible.
For more information on how to manage multiple patient credit cards, check out the support document over here. Check out all our other Feature Review posts, too!
August 8, 2017
Want to Integrate Atlas.md With Your Favorite Lab? All it Takes is an Email.
It’s official. Atlas.md is putting the choice of who you use as your lab provider back in your hands.
We’ve partnered with ELLKAY, a company who acts as a go-between for Atlas and other lab providers. Get this. ELLKAY has one of the largest collections of lab integrations in the U.S., making many of them plug and play for Atlas. And for those lab providers ELLKAYhasn’t already integrated with, it may take a little more time, but it’s still totally possible. ELLKAY speeds up the process and even opens the doors for smaller labs to interface directly into Atlas.
Here’s the best part. All your practice needs to do is tell us who you want to integrate with; ELLKAY and Atlas will do the rest. So send an email with your lab’s contact info to support@atlas.md and check it off your todo list.
The choice is yours, and that’s how it should be. Each lab has their own minimum volume level requirements for integration, but if you have a really great relationship with a particular lab provider, Atlas will support you so you can keep working your way.
July 17, 2017
What Feels Like the End is Often the Beginning.
Remember the moment you realized you wanted to go to med school? It was definitive: helping people is what you wanted to do with your life. You were probably scared, a little nervous, but mostly excited out of your mind. You had a mountain to climb; you were under no false pretenses that it would be easy. But the steps were laid out for you. Take this class, learn this method, become excellent. So you did. You experienced endless sleepless nights of studying and the death of your social life. Even so, you put one foot in front of the other on this path so many before you had walked. You knew where it would lead; you couldn’t get there fast enough. And so when it came time to walk across the stage, your exhausted bones knew it was the end of an era. No more tests, no more classrooms.
You graduated! You did it! You reached the end of the road . . . you’re laughing now, right? (Yeah, it was hard to even write that.) Everybody knows that not only does the road NOT end at graduation, but that’s when it gets steep. Really, really steep. Your internship, residency and fellowship were no joke; you often wondered if there were somehow more than 24 hours in your day because you seemed to fill up every single one of them and then some. You had to make some really hard decisions: would you specialize? In what? Who did you want to learn from in the real world? Where did you want to live? Where did your biggest opportunities lie? How could you care for people the best way you knew how?
You worked harder than you ever thought you could, poured over all your options. Again, you wisely followed the footprints of others who had run this marathon before. As the light at the end of the tunnel drew nearer, you watched as your career began to take shape.You fought for the letters that now followed your name and you believed in every word of the oath you took. And suddenly, although there was still so much to learn, you’d come to the end yet again. You were no longer under anyone’s wing. It was just you. And your patients.
Or so you thought. Read more
July 12, 2017
Atlas.md EMR Update: Fewer Clicks is the Name of the Game.
In this mini-release for the Atlas.md EMR, it’s all about seeings things clearly – and quickly. These new features will help get you where you’re going faster, so you can spend a few extra minutes doing, well, anything else.
Send files from your inbox straight to billing.
When your clinic scans things like insurance forms, payment receipts and checks, now you can assign them straight to the billing section of your patient’s chart from the files inbox. Saves a step, every time.
Better management of read files from your dashboard widget.
Your “Unread SMS Messages” dashboard widget does a great job of letting you know what needs responded to. Now it does an even better job of letting you manage what doesn’t need responded to by letting you manually mark items as “read.”
New dashboard widget for recent lab results.
We didn’t beat around the bush with that title, did we? So there you have it – there’s a new widget for recent lab results. It’s simple as that – if you’re the author of the lab request, or the patient’s primary doctor, your dashboard will give you quick and easy access to the most recent results available to view.
July 10, 2017
What is a Technology Visit?
Life happens. Your patients can’t always come to you, and you may not always be able to go to them. Thank goodness Direct Care accounts for that by way of nontraditional methods of communication . . . otherwise known as technology visits! It really boils down to convenience. At any rate, here’s a little reminder of all the ways you can be there for your patients – no matter where there is.
Emails
Quick, easy, everyone’s tied to it from their phones anyway. It’s great because email is so versatile these days. Email from your desktop, your tablet, your phone – whatever works.
Phone
It’s a no-brainer. But in a world where we’re used to typing and texting, the phone can serve as a valuable resource when your patient need to be walked through something in a pinch. Plus, hearing the sound of your voice can really help calm a sticky situation.
Video Chat
Skype, FaceTime, the Atlas.md EMR in-app video phone feature. It all works, and it gives you an advantage of seeing what the patient is describing in real time.
Text
Texting is one of the most popular means of communications today. Makes sense; it’s also one of the easiest! Your patient can send a note, a picture, whatever. they need And you can respond pretty much anytime – except when you’re driving, of course. Technology makes healthcare accessible . . . but not that accessible.
Bonus
If you’re using the Atlas.md EMR, don’t forget the vitals of all this correspondence gets tied directly to your patient’s chart. So you can talk, type or text with your patient without worrying about logging it later. Plus, having these key correspondence features already integrated into your EMR saves you big bucks by having to use a separate tool.
How are you getting creative with technology visits in your practice? Share your story in the comments!