Operations

A company's mission statement should represent the core values and ideals of the founders' vision for their practice.

A visit from the authorities does not necessarily mean that you have been or will be accused of anything improper, but it can hurt your reputation and your business.

Your view of compensation ― as a cost or as an investment ― can have a major impact on the long term growth of your practice.

Knowing what a triple net is ― and isn't ― will help practices understand the true costs of their office leases.

No employer ― medical practice or otherwise ― is too small to need a comprehensive employee manual. Is it time to update yours?

How much of a connection do you think there is between happy patients and favorable finances at your office?

In medicine, there is an important distinction between clinical quality and perceived clinical quality. They are rarely one and the same, and understanding this distinction is critical for both clinicians and practice administrators.

As medical reimbursements continue to dwindle, the value proposition for participating in insurance plans becomes increasingly weak. Why not break with tradition and contract directly with employers? Here's how to get started.

Peter K. Kim, MD, on why he thinks conventional preoperative bowel prep is unnecessary, and possibly harmful.

With government incentive dollars flowing and new tech tools like tablet computers and patient portals emerging, more practices are embracing a digital future. But for many, the old barrier to adoption - money - remains.

Here are six ways you can maximize your time and improve practice performance.

No doubt salaries are important, but are you paying the right people today and will you have the right mix in the coming years? The experts weigh in.

Here's the data from our 2011 Staff Salary Survey.

Medical practices are often fraught with poor policies and time sucks that undermine staff performance. Here's what to look for - and what to do about it.

Whatever area of your practice needs improvement, consider lean thinking as a way to get the most out of your time - your patients, staff, and practice will be glad you did.

To stay safe and weed out the billing and collections problems stifling your practice's revenue stream, our experts recommend a "bottom-to-top" assessment of your entire billing operation.

Is staff mediocrity costing you money? Here's how to fix it.

While many industries are wringing even more efficiencies out of their IT systems investments, many in healthcare circles are still quarreling over whether healthcare IT is even a good idea.

You might feel more justified than most in taking out your frustration on others, but be careful - the emotional hangovers you might create can often have a long-lasting effect on your practice.

Are you ready to make social media platforms part of your practice? Make sure you put reasonable constraints in place.

What yardstick should you use to measure your practice against those of your colleagues?

We have - in healthcare - made the patient essentially a critical part of the process? In what other industry would we have the customer become a courier for his/her treatment or service?

Medical practices have been slow to embrace the "customer comes first" mentality that defines corporate America - an operational oversight they can no longer ignore.

Risks like security breaches, privacy violations, and misplaced patient information all need to be addressed when you adopt new technologies at your practice, say the co-authors of a book on "E-Health Hazards."

Inflation can be both good and bad for a practice. Therefore, understanding the nature of inflation can save your practice money.