Operations

We’ll let the pundits haggle over whether Medicare D is helping seniors. We’re concerned with how it’s affecting you. If changing formularies and requests for new scripts are wearing you out, try these recommendations for making things easier.

Administrators have a crucial role in the EMR-shopping process. You’re the adviser, manager, and head cheerleader. But you’re not the decision-maker. Here’s how to walk the line with grace.

Delivering unpleasant clinical news is one of the toughest jobs in medicine. Here’s how to handle it with clarity and sensitivity.

Solo endocrinologist Richard Plotzker isn’t worried about how to grow his business. He’s trying to figure out how to keep from drowning in his own popularity. Expert Laurie Hyland Robertson throws him a life preserver.

When good employees are promoted to managerial roles, the transition can sometimes be rocky. Here’s how to help new supervisors make the leap successfully.

Do you feel overwhelmed every day? From the nation’s leading time-management experts, here’s the best advice on how to make the most of your day.

What advice do the best veteran practice administrators around have to share? We thought someone should ask them. So we did.

Cleaning out your supply closet may not be high on your list of favorite activities, but there’s money on those shelves - your money. Stop wasting it and get organized. We’ll help you get started.

Don’t let employees’ poor computer skills (or your own) stop you from adopting needed technology.

Another selection from our weekly e-mail newsletter. This issue: Preparing for natural (and unnatural) disasters.

Keeping your patients happy is crucial to a thriving practice. And you can do it without breaking the bank. Check out these five low-cost, creative ways to keep them happy and coming back to see you.

What do the best-performing practices all have in common? What do they know that you don’t? We dig deep to find the answers. Hint: It’s not as complicated as you might think.

Change is hard on everyone, but sometimes it’s for the best. Here’s how to help staff accept it - and embrace it.

We were worried about Roy Gondo, the likeable but disorganized family physician we told you about last year. He was up to his neck in incomplete charts and saddled with staffing difficulties. You’ll be surprised with what we found when we checked in again - and with what you can learn.

It’s almost the end of the year. But before you break out the party hats, take some time to give your practice its annual exam. What do you need to do before Baby New Year arrives?

Here’s how to say what the boss doesn’t want to hear.

Obtain staff buy-in for a teamwork approach.

The new Medicare prescription drug plan may be good for patients, but it’s a headache for you.

Family physician Mitchell Cohen on how his practice benefits from his online auction addiction.

You love your patients. Well, most of them, anyway. But every practice has its share of annoying, demanding, and sometimes downright infuriating patients. Better know how to handle them, or they’ll handle you.

How to select appropriate office artwork. (Yes, it matters.)

A Virginia urology practice is struggling with a monster schedule and high staff turnover. Our expert Laurie Hyland Robertson comes to the rescue.

Between big chain pharmacies, mail-order pharmacies, and forgetful patients, practices these days are inundated with prescription paperwork. Rapport with pharmacies may be at an all-time low. Here are some tips for reducing the burden - and improving relations.

What are you supposed to do when you’re losing money on procedures and services? Must you simply eat the cost in order to serve the patient’s interest?

With hundreds of new drugs entering the market every year, where can you turn for reliable information?