The computers sitting on the desks at your medical practice can be considered among the most important links holding your business together. Generic business applications or one-size-fits-all medical programs will, by definition, be unsuitable for handling many of the regular events and tasks that your staff has to deal with each day. Medical practices have unique needs when it comes to computer applications. Finding the right software can mean the difference between just getting by or growing so successful that you have to hire more medical professionals to handle the increased work load.

The following is an excerpt from an article on Medpage Today. It was written by Joyce Frieden. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) may relax some of its rules for implementing Meaningful Use requirements, the agency announced Thursday. "Meaningful Use" refers to provisions in the 2009 Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, which authorized incentive payments through Medicare and Medicaid to clinicians and hospitals that use electronic health records (EHRs) in a meaningful way to significantly improve clinical care.

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.

If your oncology-focused practice has been getting by using an antiquated paper-based system to manage your day-to-day operations and the enormous amount of data generated and recorded for each patient, you have likely been looking for a computerized solution. This is why so many practices make an effort to look into bring electronic health record software into their facilities. Even a cursory glance at the available software solutions will show that it’s best to go with EHR software that has been developed with the unique requirements of oncology.

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.

Whether the radiological practice that you manage is fairly established or is relatively new to the area where you are providing service, it pays to take advantage of the latest developments in software solutions. Radiology can often involve large amounts of data, especially when you consider the file sizes required for processing, analyzing, and storing digital records such as X-rays and other scans. In addition, staff members have unique types of information to address in the course of evaluating, diagnosing, and treating patients.

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.