Posted by: AtlasMD

February 20, 2015

Recommended Reading: Good to Great

We often get asked for recommended reading lists. We’re delivering! These weekly posts feature one book we highly recommend to learn more about business, philosophy, and different perspectives to help you run your business. Do you have a recommendation that’s not on the list yet? Mention it in the comments!

This Week’s Recommendation: Good to Great written by Jim Collins

The Challenge:
Built to Last, the defining management study of the nineties, showed how great companies triumph over time and how long-term sustained performance can be engineered into the DNA of an enterprise from the verybeginning.

But what about the company that is not born with great DNA? How can good companies, mediocre companies, even bad companies achieve enduring greatness?

The Study: 
For years, this question preyed on the mind of Jim Collins. Are there companies that defy gravity and convert long-term mediocrity or worse into long-term superiority? And if so, what are the universal distinguishing characteristics that cause a company to go from good to great?

The Standards:
Using tough benchmarks, Collins and his research team identified a set of elite companies that made the leap to great results and sustained those results for at least fifteen years. How great? After the leap, the good-to-great companies generated cumulative stock returns that beat the general stock market by an average of seven times in fifteen years, better than twice the results delivered by a composite index of the world’s greatest companies, including Coca-Cola, Intel, General Electric, and Merck.

Put Good to Great on your bookshelf. >

Posted by: AtlasMD

February 17, 2015

What’s New in the Atlas.md EMR?

The latest feature releases and updates in the Atlas.md EMR include ways to make your clinic more efficient, accountable, and accurate.

Edit Vitals & Stats
Vitals & Statistics are now editable. By clicking the new “Details” button for each measurement, you can edit or remove the entry entirely. Learn what’s possible over here.

New Patient Importer
Now you can import your patient list quickly and easily by uploading a CSV. Read more about how it works over here.

Introducing Lab Panel Organization
Now you can easily save groups of tests you request frequently. Saved groups are shared across the entire account for easy clinic-wide access. Learn how to utilize lab panels over here.

Better Handling of Quest Results
If a lab result comes back from Quest not matching an existing patient, skip the duplicate entry and assign the result to the correct patient instead. Read where to find your mismatched results here.

Email Quest Request to Patient
If your patients prefer a digital or printed copy of their lab order file, this new feature makes that possible. Learn how here.

Read more

Posted by: AtlasMD

February 16, 2015

Atlas MD Podcast 21 – Inside the Mind of Medical Students

Atlas MD Podcast 21 – Inside the Mind of Medical Students

In the latest podcast, Drs. Josh and Doug talk about their upcoming travel schedule, which recent updates to the Atlas.md EMR have made the most impact on clinic efficiency, the launch of IAmDirectCare.com, and how a $600 prescription turned into $6 (that’s not a typo!).

Next, the docs open up the floor to two medical students from Kansas City who have been shadowing Atlas MD for the past month. The students verbally explore their chosen paths, and express how Direct Primary Care fits into their future plans. Then they grill Josh and Doug on a handful of questions everyone’s thinking, but may not be asking out loud. They discuss marketing practices, how DPC sells itself, why it’s best not to offer insurance out of the gate when starting your DPC practice, and how in the world some docs still don’t see the benefit of the DPC model. The students don’t hold back and succeed in getting their answers.

Through it all, it’s becoming more clear that the DPC message is reaching more physician hopefuls throughout more aspects of their training. Although it can sound too good to be true, docs are learning that the DPC model can solve a lot of problems for a lot of people if implemented in the right way.

Listen to Podcast 21 here for all the details! > 

Posted by: AtlasMD

February 13, 2015

Business Insider: Why Your Doctor is Always Late.

Twenty minutes goes fast. Really fast.

So fast, in fact, that in the blink of a eye 20 minutes will vanish in the course of an already busy day. It takes a lot to stay on schedule in 20 minute increments, and only a little to throw a string of 20 minute time slots completely off course. (Pee fast!)

Welcome to the life of a physician who begins her day knowing there’s a very high probability her timeliness will derail halfway through the morning.

In a recent article published on Business Insider, “Dr. Tardy” outlines part of her day, giving examples of the types of patients she sees and the time it takes to care for them well. Through the interruptions, mishaps, and even some unexpected generous gaps to make up for lost time, she demonstrates that real patient care can’t be scheduled in 20 minute slots.

Dr. Tardy explains that she tries her hardest to “do the right thing for her patients, tries to take the time to listen without making them feel rushed.” And maybe that’s true. But what if she didn’t have to try so hard? Think how different her day would be if she knew she had 45 minutes (at least!) with each patient. If, when she needed to call a patient to explain the urgency behind an impending trip to the ER, that call wasn’t interfering with her next patient.

Hmmm… Dr. Tardy needs to be introduced to Direct Primary Care, where patient care is put above all else. The thing is, traditional medical practices say that, too – that patients come first. At the end of the day, actions speak louder than words, which is why the DPC business model is built around patient care rather than patients being squeezed into an impossibly tight schedule in a feeble attempt to keep their doors open.

In a world where a patient being 15 minutes late doesn’t derail the day, Dr. Tardy could change her name to Dr. Timely.

Read the full article over here on Business Insider. >

Posted by: AtlasMD

February 9, 2015

Healthcare Informatics: Healthcare Should Be More Like Amazon

David Chou was recently interviewed for a piece at Healthcare Informatics about how the healthcare industry should take a hint from the internet giant Amazon “in order to achieve patient engagement.”

Chou’s reasoning for using analytics to understand patient behavior and patterns is proactive, and indicative of what Direct Care believes should be the standard. He says “We need to project what issues each patient is going to have.”

But to gain the data, technology must be embraced more than it is today – by both patients and healthcare workers. According to the 2014 HIMSS Analytics Mobile Devices Study, it looks like we’re on the right track!

“Interest in telehealth is growing among providers, which could help keep patients out of the hospital. In addition, more than 50 percent of U.S. hospitals are using smartphones and/or tablets and 69 percent of clinicians are using both a desktop/laptop and a smartphone/tablet to access data.”

So how do we continue this trend? Chou says it’s all about changing behavior.

“I think it’s not what they need to know, it’s changing their behavior and how they practice medicine. They do get called for emergencies, but when that [engagement] floodgate opens you know the patient is going to [contact] the doctor anytime they have concerns. It won’t have to be urgent. So it’s a behavior change more than anything. Most of the physicians they know how to use technology. Everyone has text messaging. Everyone knows how to use two-way communications applications. It’s not that they don’t know what they’re doing, it’s just not on a professional manner.”

Click here to read the full interview, which also includes Chou’s thoughts on how patient-generated data can be useful for doctors.

Posted by: AtlasMD

February 3, 2015

An Open Invitation to Be Brilliant.

Atlas-Blog37

To all the docs in a traditional practice who feel trapped. To all the physicians who wrap up each day feeling exhausted, buried behind mountains of paperwork. To all those former med students who thought there would be more patient in patient care.

It’s your turn. 

Your turn to be who you always wanted to be. Provide the kind of patient care you always imagined. Run the practice you always dreamed of. Your turn to be brilliant.

Direct Care is waiting for you, and making the transition isn’t all that difficult. Truth be told, neither is starting your own practice. There are lots of people who want direct care. And lots of people who support it, too.

So before you succumb to the desire to sell tupperware, there are a few things you should know. The way it’s been doesn’t have to be the way it is. Patients want personalized medicine as much as you want to provide it. And finally, change is not only possible, but happening around the country this very minute.

Posted by: AtlasMD

January 28, 2015

Yahoo! Finance: Concierge Model is Good Medicine for Subspecialists and Their Patients

The Direct Care business model is for more than family practice. According to Yahoo! Finance, it’s perfect for subspecialists, too, including cardiology, endocrinology, pulmonology, pediatrics and OB GYN practices.

Leading cardiologist John R. Levinson, MD, PhD, founder of the country’s first concierge subspecialty practice, AllCare Medical, LLC, in Boston, says: “Those specialties where patients have a longitudinal relationship with their doctor to work on chronic problems are an ideal fit for the concierge model.  If you’re the kind of cardiologist who helps patients work on chronic valve disease, coronary disease, or other areas of preventive cardiology, a concierge practice vastly improves your ability to provide the very best care for each and every patient.”

But it’s more than just a good business plan. It’s a good choice for a better quality of life from a provider’s point of view. Michael Friedlander, Principal at national healthcare consulting firm Specialdocs, even went so far as to say that physicians who have adopted the model have “taken their professional lives back.” Dr. Levinson knows firsthand just how good life can be inside the proverbial walls of Direct Care.

“It’s staggering what a change it has made,” asserts Dr. Levinson. “I’m unbelievably happy doing what I’m doing.”

Read the full article over here on Yahoo! Finance. >

Posted by: AtlasMD

January 27, 2015

The Atlas.md iOS Patient Portal Launched to the Masses

After a successful trial period of the Atlas.md iOS Patient Portal, access to invite patients to the app is now enabled for all accounts.

The portal connects you with your patients, making it easier than ever for them to communicate with you. They can reach out at their convenience, pay their bills and manage other billing details, and set and manage appointments – right from their iPhone or iPod Touch.

For more information about how to invite patients and get them set up with the patient portal app, be sure to jump over to the support section and read all about it. 

 

Posted by: AtlasMD

January 26, 2015

A Rose By Any Other Name…

Call it what you want: concierge medicine, fixed-fee agreements, retainer medicine, membership medicine, or cash-only practice. Direct Care is reducing costs, making more sense for families than ever before – and Michigan is taking steps to keep this business model around.

According to the Michigan Capital Confidential, “Medical retainer agreements between physicians and patients will not be considered “insurance” in Michigan under a recently passed bill signed into law on Jan. 15 by Gov. Rick Snyder. The idea is to ensure that this innovative way for families to obtain routine medical services at lower costs will not be stifled by the extensive state regulatory structure currently imposed on conventional health insurance policies that cover expensive non-routine care.”

The idea that Direct Care results in higher quality medical care is becoming more widely accepted. It works for patients, who enjoy perks like shorter wait times, longer appointments, and actual one-on-one attention as well as physicians. Jack McHugh, legislative analyst with the Mackinac Center for Public Policy agrees everyone wins with this business plan. “What’s not to like about a very inexpensive relationship that covers all your family’s routine health care needs with no burdensome insurance paperwork, copays and bureaucracy? This can be liberating for doctors too, who are freed up to focus purely on patients’ needs rather than insurance company and bureaucrats’ needs.”

Read the full article for more information on Senate Bill 1033, now Public Act 552 of 2014, as well as the guidelines for being considered a “medical retainer agreement.” >

Posted by: AtlasMD

January 22, 2015

The Art of Feedback. Yes, We Said “Art.”

Words are powerful, there’s no doubt about it. As a physician you learn a fair amount about bedside manner in school. And you gain valuable experience through every day application. You may think you have the art of feedback perfected, but as a Direct Care doc you have the ability to connect with patients on a deeper level than you would through a traditional practice. It’s partially why you’re in Direct Care to begin with; you wanted the opportunity to practice patient-centric medicine.

That means providing feedback that will actually be useful and yup, you guessed it, constructive. Providing feedback in a way that opens the doors for honest improvement does more than invigorate someone to better themselves. It builds trust.

“Think about it: is there anything more invigorating than knowing there are people who want to help you become your best self? It starts with how we interact with one another. Words can hit and bounce off people or they can be planted like a seed. Even the raise of an eyebrow or the wrong tone can extinguish a desire to learn, stirring anxiety and a fear of failure.” – HelpScout

Aside from our own interactions with patients, we frequently deal with feedback when handling support for the Atlas.md EMR. We know firsthand how much weight a note carrying an attitude has. Alternatively, kind words and thoughtful suggestions go a long way toward the effort we’re willing to put in to make our users happy.

Believe it or not, there’s formula for constructing feedback, and it’s something we should all keep in mind each time we interact with a patient, a support team, or anyone we’re critiquing. We highly recommend reading this article from HelpScout for more details. After all, when is it ever a bad idea to choose positivity over negativity?