Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2012
This Week's News
AMA initiative can help reclaim time for your practice
Congress freezes Medicare physician payments through Dec. 31
Responding to AMA concerns, HHS announces ICD-10 compliance delay
AMA and AT&T teaming up to help physicians modernize their practices
Special Feature
AMA initiative can help reclaim time for your practice
The average physician spends 43 minutes per day just on interactions with health insurers. Practice staff devote another 11 hours daily to the same tasks, according to a 2009 study in Health Affairs.
That's more than 58 hours a week that could be redirected to medical care, patient service or practice enhancements by switching to a more electronic process.
The AMA's Rapid Process Improvement Initiative provides tools to help you easily assess your practice workflows, identify areas of inefficiency and implement effective process improvements.
A practice assessment helps you evaluate four key areas: business operations, connectivity, collections and patient satisfaction. A guidance tool then pinpoints inefficiencies and offers simple steps that can save time and money while increasing patient satisfaction.
Designed for busy practice schedules, the initiative allows you to tackle one project at a time so you can make meaningful changes with a minimal time commitment.
Elizabeth A. Kleiner, MD, an infectious disease specialist in Colorado Springs who recently participated in the AMA Rapid Process Improvement Initiative, explained that the initiative helped their practice make meaningful changes.
"Our rapid process improvement exercise was a useful one which helped us identify system issues that could be improved upon to enhance the quality of patient care and the health care delivery system within our office," Dr. Kleiner said.
The nature of the initiative allows you and your practice staff to participate without significant disruptions to your daily schedules and implement each process change as quickly as possible. Even getting started is simple—just watch a 10-minute webinar that walks through each step of the initiative.
Visit the AMA's newly redesigned online practice consultant to learn more about process improvement and the benefits to your practice.
