In addition to toothy smiles and reward stickers, pediatric practices run on efficiency. Streamlined systems are essential for providers, administrators, staff members, patients, and their families. This is especially true when prescribing medications, including controlled substances. In pediatrics, the most common controlled substances are typically ADHD medications. These maintenance drugs are...
The timely delivery of immunizations is at the core of pediatric preventive medicine. To give it the attention it needs—and deserves—every component of immunization management has an important role to play. The HIMSS Immunization Integration Program (IIP) Certification is a step towards better electronic health records (EHRs) and improved patient...
As an independent pediatric practice, you are passionate about caring for children and their families. But in order to make sure your patients are physically and emotionally healthy, you have to run a healthy practice. To be a thriving pediatric office, it takes hard work. You need to hire quality staff...
Every fall, pediatric offices face the daunting task of delivering as many flu vaccines as possible to their patients. In order to protect their communities, we know this must be done in a timely fashion. With delivery of vaccine highly variable from season to season, and between VFC and private...
You’ve decided you’re ready to spread your entrepreneurial wings. You're going to open your own pediatric practice. While it’s an exciting time, it’s also busy with planning. You’ve got a checklist full of items like credentialing providers with payers, securing financing, choosing a location, purchasing technology, hiring staff, ordering supplies and...
Electronic health record software is consistently updated in order to adjust to the ever-changing and dynamic healthcare and technology worlds. That’s why training must be seen as a consistent commitment, not a one-and-done effort. Regardless of whether you’re going to switch to a new EHR or plan on staying...
When reviewing (or developing) your revenue cycle management plan, don't overlook the first steps: making sure all your providers are appropriately credentialed with all your payers and associated products. Credentialing and Provider Enrollment are more than just arduous tasks of paperwork; without them, claims aren’t paid. Opportunities to grow your...
Well visits are the cornerstone of every pediatric practice. They are essential to providing great care for your patients and ensuring financial success for your practice. Check out a recording of our webinar, “Maximize Your Pediatric Well Visit Rates,” presented by Susan J. Kressly, MD, FAAP. During this one-hour webinar, you...
A frazzled mom walks into your pediatric clinic. She approaches the check-in desk, and your receptionist notices dark circles below wet eyes, red from crying, possibly even during the drive to the office. The screaming toddler on the mom’s hip is not so interested in disguising his anguish. He wails in...
We all know you can't improve what you don’t monitor. But when it comes to your pediatric practice - do you even know what to monitor? Check out a recording of our educational webinar, Key Performance Indicators for Pediatric Practices, presented by Pediatric Management Institute (PMI) Founder Paul Vanchiere. Webinar Benefits Gain an...
In order to truly provide top-notch medical care at your pediatric practice, you need an all-star team of professionals working around you. Front desk staff, nurse practitioners, medical billers, the list goes on. A successful medical practice relies on a full staff of talented people. A hiring mistake alone, can...
If your payment data is currently dispersed across multiple systems, you might hit a roadblock in your plan for payment assurance. What does your roadmap for payment assurance look like? Use these three checkpoints to analyze where your data might be failing you and how you can improve collection processes by...
Preventative care is the cornerstone of pediatrics, yet many practices don’t optimize their well visits. If you are not doing proactive recalls, you are leaving money on the table and your patients are not receiving optimal care. There are several aspects to optimize well visits but your practice must be...
Do you get too many emails, app notifications, and social media blasts? So do the parents in your practice. That’s why it’s so hard to get their attention, let alone the attention of prospective patients. Check out the recording of our webinar, “Digital Strategies to Drive New Patients to Your Practice,”...
In the past, excellent patient care was enough to earn word of mouth referrals for pediatric practices. Aside from directory listings, most doctors didn't need to market their practices at all. Parents would simply ask their friends for a doctor recommendation or choose from an insurance company's list of providers....
Sometimes, you can have too much of a good thing. When it comes to choosing an electronic health record (EHR) solution, less is actually more if you’re in a pediatrics practice. That’s because a well-rounded adult-centric EHR is likely to be less helpful than one specially built for your area...
Online patient portals – or websites connected to a patient’s EHR – can provide tremendous enhancements for pediatric family engagement and satisfaction. On the other hand, online portals can also be one of those offerings some parents argue is good in theory, but not in practice. Busy parents may be...
Do you lie awake at night worrying about your pediatric practice’s billing processes? Are you concerned about what will happen when your reliable, long-standing staff biller decides to retire? For example, who’s going to ensure you’re billing for all services you perform such as every strep test has an accompanying...
In a typical day, how do patient records move through your pediatric office? Your administrative staff pulls files for scheduled patients and creates records for new patients. Your nurse/medical assistant updates those files with each patient’s vitals. Your pediatricians take copious notes as they see each patient. Then, each file...
You’re invested in your patients' health and well-being, but are they? If not, your clinical outcomes and bottom line may suffer. Check out a recording of our educational webinar, Increase Patient Engagement: Improve Clinical and Financial Outcomes. During this webinar, you’ll learn: What patient engagement is Why it's important for your...
Since the inception of the HITECH Act in 2009, the major focus of Health IT has been in caring for adult patients and populations. For the past ten years, pediatricians have added our voices to every discussion reminding stakeholders that children are not just little adults, and they have specific...
I have spoken with many of you about the proposed CMS changes that are scheduled to take place over the next few years. From my perspective, they fall into two categories: what’s happening 1/1/19 and what is anticipated to change in 2021. Regardless of what kind of practice you are...
It’s really rewarding to see so many colleagues realizing the power behind the EHR and embracing it as a robust tool, not just an electronic word document. Creating a note, which reflects the work performed at an office visit, is much of what pediatric team members do every day. However,...
Many of us have been working on quality improvement projects in our offices that include improving immunization and well visit rates, reducing the use of unnecessary antibiotics, and other initiatives that improve the care of our patients. But how many of you have embarked on improving the patient and family...
I have had the privilege of traveling across the country meeting and speaking with colleagues, and in doing so, I’ve seen a wide variety of pediatric practices. There are a lot of pediatricians who are still under the impression that all they have to do is see patients and practice...
In celebration of National Children’s Dental Health Month, take a minute to make sure your practice is doing everything it can to promote good oral health to your patients and families. Have you incorporated questions about oral health into your well visit templates? Do you ask about a dental home?...
As we start the new year, many people decide to assess where they are in life and prioritize some positive improvements. I’d like to offer the following New Year’s Resolutions for EHR users:...
Many of you have read my prior blogs about the importance of well visits to pediatrics. I’ll say it again: as many “simple sick” visits are leaving the office for urgent care, telehealth and other competitive entities, it is crucial that the pediatric medical home owns preventive care. It is...
I had the pleasure of catching up with many of you at the AAP National Conference and Exhibition in Chicago in September. Pediatricians often ask me...
Well visits are becoming increasingly complex as the Bright Futures periodicity schedule changes. Over the past few years, evidence...
Much has been written about team-based care in the last few years. Proactive outreach to patients and coordinating their care...
If your practice is like mine, you may have noticed unfilled slots in your patient schedule over...
Whether or not you plan to apply for NCQA for Patient Centered Medical Home (PCHM)...
I frequently get requests from users about customization of alerts, pop-ups...
Vaccines save lives. I was going to stop there. For pediatricians, that’s a...
For more than ten years, early adopters of EHR technology have promoted the power...
Last month I had the privilege of attending the AAP’s National Conference and Exhibition...
I just spent two days in Seattle with a group of awesome pediatricians doing fabulous work to transform...
It’s summertime in your practice, and while you aren’t seeing high volume patients with colds, coughs, and fever, you should still be busy. A successful pediatric practice should...
Staff time spent on the telephone is a huge practice expense and one that can be easily reduced to the satisfaction of all involved. As pediatricians, our patients and their families primarily connect with...
As we prepare to migrate from a fee-for-service to “value-based payment” model, it is critical that we gather as much information about the care we currently deliver, so we can best prepare for the future. ...
Did you know that medical errors are one of the leading causes of injury and death in the U.S.? According to a report conducted by the Institute of Medicine, an estimated 98,000 people die in hospitals every year from medical errors that could have been easily avoided. As the leader...
After presenting your patients with your initiative to take full advantage of electronic health records, it's important to ensure them that all private data and information will be safe and secure in the health information technology system. There are many simple steps you can take to provide risk management principles throughout...
Once your practice has successfully implemented electronic health records into the new and improved system, it is important to get a grasp on meaningful use. But what exactly does that mean? According to Health IT, meaningful use sets specific goals and objectives that health care professionals need to achieve while using...
Once you've planned your approach to electronic health record implementation and you've organized your practice, you might realize that you don't have enough resources or staff members to successfully adopt this new health information technology system. You may find it in your best interest to hire new staff members or consultants who have...
No matter what type of industry your work falls within, every successful business begins with a knowledgeable foundation. That being said, the health information technology industry has a technology-heavy foundation that allowed it to blossom into a successful alternative to paper in the medical world. For some medical professionals who...
Before deciding to implement health information technology into your practice, it is important to understand exactly what Health IT is...
If you are interested in implementing electronic health records into your...
When it comes to implementing electronic health records, organization is key. EHR implementation...
Imagine taking a vacation and waking up feeling severely ill, or going through an accident that causes you...
If you're deciding whether or not to implement electronic health records into your practice, consider the following: "When [EHRs] are well-designed and implemented correctly, they can be a powerful force for reducing errors, lowering costs, raising quality of care, and increasing doctor and patient satisfaction," according to Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of...
The use of electronic health records by physicians and other health care providers has led to a number of positive improvements in patient safety over time, according to a study by the Research Triangle Institute. While this advancement in health information technology has been proven to improve the quality and...
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