Wednesday, March 31, 2021

Enabling effective internal healthcare communication with HIPAA compliant email

Research shows that effective communication in healthcare institutions improves the quality of staff relationships, increases efficiency, and profoundly impacts patient safety.


HIPAA compliant email is an effective way to keep the lines of communication open which reduces liability risk, and ensures that staff members have the information they need to do their jobs well.


Team communication leads to employee satisfaction


Effective internal communication helps employees feel connected to their coworkers and the organization. This, in turn, leads to higher levels of employee satisfaction and engagement.

According to studies by Watson Wyatt Worldwide, engaged employees perform better, miss 20% fewer days of work, are more supportive of organizational change, and have lower turnover rates.



Better employee engagement leads to better care


Engaged employees are also more likely to provide better care. In fact, Gallup has found that nurse engagement is the number one predictor of mortality variation across hospitals.

A recent Advisory Board study found that every 1% increase in hospital employee engagement correlates with a 0.33-point increase in the facility’s Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems overall hospital rating, which affects Medicare reimbursement. The study also showed that a 1% increase in hospital employee engagement is tied to a 0.41-point increase in patient safety grades.


How to safely use email to communicate with staff


Healthcare email marketing is an easy and efficient way to communicate with your staff en masse, but covered entitiesmust always consider HIPAA compliance implications.

Many large healthcare organizations require business associates to not only sign a business associate agreement (BAA) but also fill out a security questionnaire, but the majority of mainstream email marketing providers won’t do either of these things.

Even if your email communication doesn’t include protected health information (PHI), it’s prudent to partner with a vendor that will sign a BAA in any case, to make sure you are only working with partners that take email securityseriously.

As evidenced by the massive SolarWinds hack last year which affected over 18,000 companies, a vendor’s security vulnerabilities can create a backdoor into your own IT system, which hackers could use to install malware or other cyberthreats.


Share the big picture


Employees want a big-picture perspective of where the organization is headed and how they contribute to that vision. An effective communication program should be the voice of your organization and foster teamwork and collaboration, ensuring that every employee knows their role and responsibilities.


Share good news


Hospital staffers rarely hear about what is going well or what they’re doing right. Authentic kudos can drive engagement, so don’t miss an opportunity to share positive stories about the organization or superstar staff members.


Send targeted messages


Make sure any message you send is relevant, timely and targeted to the affected staffers only. For example, people may only be interested in messages about their specific workplace location, or regarding specific departments.


Find the right cadence


It’s important to clearly communicate the right information at the right frequency, however. Sending too many superfluous emails trains employees to expect junk. This goes hand in hand with only sending pinpointed messages to the affected segments of your staff.



Conclusion


Hospitals and healthcare organizations have unique needs when it comes to internal email communication. They are large and complex organizations where the stakes are high—if the proper information isn’t shared it can literally mean the difference between life and death.

Employees can help carry their institutions through this tumultuous time in healthcare if they understand where the organization is going and how they, personally, can contribute. It’s up to communications leaders to get that message through.

HIPAA compliant email marketing can be a great tool in your toolbox for keeping workers informed, engaged, and motivated to do their jobs well.


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Sunday, March 28, 2021

Passive real estate investing is ideal for physicians

How can a successful physician with countless demands from patients, employees, physician groups, etc. create a work-life balance? How can you create the financial independence, wealth and prosperity without dedicating 15-hours a day, working multiple jobs, and offering additional products, services and treatments?


Based on my 20+ years of neurosurgery experience, when combined with my 30+ years of real estate experience, I prescribe passive real estate investments to my fellow physicians to achieve financial independence, wealth and prosperity.


Building wealth through real estate


Every investor has one goal: wealth creation! If that’s what you want too, real estate is your best bet.

The overall process is quite simple. If you acquire a rental property by putting up a small amount of money as your down payment, and the bank puts up the rest, then the rental income from the property should provide net cash flow that pays for all related expenses. You become the rightful owner of a valuable piece of real estate whose value appreciates significantly over time, yet the senior debt will have been reduced because of your principal payments.

This concept is so straightforward that we can summarize it into a simple formula:


principal reduction + property value appreciation = long-term wealth creation



Here’s something else you have to keep in mind: Each year, rental rates tend to go up by approximately 2 to 3 percent, depending on inflation, supply and demand, etc. So, your property’s value is likely to increase each year because of the expanding net cash flow.

Now, the exciting thing is that by year five, you will typically find that your equity has more than doubled (equity is the difference between the property’s value and the mortgage balance you owe the banks).

If you’re wondering why the value of your investment will increase that fast, it is because while your property’s value will likely rise, the balance on your mortgage will be reduced because the rental income you are receiving covers everything including the interest and principal on the mortgage.

Another attractive benefit to real estate investing is that it can provide an ever-rising passive income. In other words, hire the professionals to provide property management, collect rent, pay bills, etc. This form of income is attractive because it doesn’t keep you from practicing medicine. The money keeps rolling in, even if you’re sleeping. This is not to be confused with what my father told me as a kid, “Never invest in anything that eats while you sleep!” Therefore, investing in racehorses, llamas, and chinchilla farms is off limits!


Real estate is not subject to the vagaries, emotions, and political whims


As you probably already know, there are many ways of building a passive income source. Some people invest in the stock market, US Treasuries, automated businesses, while others lease or license intellectual property, and still others create online businesses. These are all great strategies.

However, as a medical practitioner who is probably very busy helping people, it is vital that you choose investment options that don’t demand too much active participation. In my experience, there are very few available passive income opportunities that allow your income to increase over time the way real estate does. Rents generally go up to keep pace with inflation, and in particularly bullish economic times or because of other macro-economic and supply-and-demand factors, rental income can even double in a short time.

I don’t invest in cars, antiques, art, or collectibles as that is merely a hobby and does not bring me a sense of happiness. Yes, I do have investments in stocks, commodities, and bonds, but for the little guy like me, I feel like I am always playing at a disadvantage. Larger investors with wealth managers and investment bankers have access to far more information and investment opportunities that are not available to regular investors. As an equity investor, you must be smart, well diversified, and strategic.


The pros and cons of real estate investing


Like most other investment opportunities, real estate investing has some risk—life itself is risky. The primary risk attached to real estate investing is that there are no guarantees. Besides this main risk, what other risks are there, and how can you safeguard your investment against value decline?

General market risk are factors like the rise and fall of the general economy, fluctuating interest rates, recessions in correlated markets, natural disasters, and other market risks that are all outside your control. The only way to guard against total annihilation by such risks is to hedge your bets by diversifing your portfolio holdings. Do not put all your investment eggs in one real estate basket.

Asset level risk has more to do with the sensitivity of consumer demand associated with a certain property type. The demand for hospitality, retail, and office space has been adversely affected due to COVID-19. However, properties that have stable demand all year have little risk. For instance, multifamily residential properties are usually in demand, even during bad economic times, making their risk significantly lower.

Liquidity risk is another form of risk peculiar to real estate. Finding buyers is not always easy, especially during market downturns, and most often it takes experienced brokers and real estate agents to find willing buyers during such times. So, any investment in real estate should have a longer-term investment horizon.

When you borrow money from a bank to finance the purchase of real estate, you are leveraging. Virtually everyone in real estate operates with leverage. As you invest, you should watch out for the leverage you take on. A lot of leverage can magnify your returns, but it can also be risky. If you allow yourself to go in over your head with debt, you risk losing your initial investment and getting into an unending cycle of debt.

Remember, you do not have to keep working hard, paying huge taxes, and letting what you have left sitting in the bank doing nothing. That is a risky way of operating that could set you back financially in a few decades to come. It is a lot safer to park your money in real estate, an asset I became familiar with when I was a 15-year-old boy, where it will allow you to build wealth and retire rich.

If you diligently apply this knowledge, you could one day retire with a seven or eight-figure net worth, or perhaps more. Who in the world would not want a luxury like that?


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Friday, March 26, 2021

RTA: A metric for value-based care

When speaking with friends, family, and colleagues, the phrases “healthcare is difficult” or “healthcare is different” are often heard. There is just something about the healthcare industry that justifies these statements and rightfully so, as healthcare impacts all of us as individuals and as a society. Ensuring these critical services work across a broad spectrum of participants is notoriously complex. From federal and state government requirements and regulations to the needs of a small provider practice trying to deliver the best possible care on the free market, it is not a simple task to try to quickly explain the economics of healthcare without starting with “healthcare is difficult” or “healthcare is different.”


There is one critical metric that is the key to unlocking a myriad of mission-critical problems plaguing the healthcare industry, the “referral-to-appointment” ratio, or RTA. A new concept to healthcare, RTA is the foundation for value-based care organizations, allowing them to confidently take on more risk while at the same time empower those who are focused on the traditional fee-for-service model of healthcare delivery. A high RTA benefits everyone by scheduling patients for the healthcare they need and by supporting the current, and most importantly, future healthcare ecosystems.


What is RTA?


In simple math, RTA is the number of total referrals received in a given time period over the number of patients who actually walk through the door for an appointment. It’s a number that more than 95% of health system managers and executives struggle to measure and find impossible to manage.


How RTA supports value-based care


While the fax machine has traditionally been the standard way for medical practices to communicate on referrals, patient records, and physician progress notes, in the 21st century it is an incredibly inefficient method for managing the continuum of care from one setting to another. Faxed referrals sit in manila folders at front desks while patients get sicker. Closing the referral loop is key; both the PCP and the referred specialist need to be on the same page about where the patient is with their treatment in order to keep additional medical costs down.

Unfortunately, only 50% of paper-based referrals ever get scheduled, with no-show rates high and communication between offices low. RTA fixes this and, most importantly, gets patients scheduled for the appointments they need. RTA allows the primary care provider to know where patients were sent, if they were seen, how quickly they got in for their appointment, and what the result of that appointment was. This connection and coordination is the foundation for a successful value-based care program. Without this key metric, there’s no way to know if the system is running efficiently, and more advanced programs can’t be developed due to an unpredictable patient pipeline.
How RTA supports fee-for-service

More patients equal more procedures. It is as simple as that.

Provider organizations last year took a major financial hit—hospitals and health systems were collectively over $300 billion–due to sharp drops in patient volumes and increased operating costs relating to additional PPE and ramped up COVID-19 testing and treatment capabilities. This year appears to be more promising, with multiple vaccines rolling out and federal aid well underway, according to a report from the Kaiser Family Foundation. With this optimistic outlook, providers need to focus on recovery strategies for their volume including taking ownership of their personal RTA to make sure they are maximizing patient capture and supporting their referring providers. Whether a small provider practice or an entire health system, RTA is the true measurement of an organization’s current and future financial health and stability.


Modernizing healthcare with technology


Healthcare is one of the most innovate industries in the world. Cutting-edge science is researched and implemented in exam and operating rooms every day. Unfortunately, the administrative staff of doctors’ offices and hospitals are stuck in the 20th century of fax machines and landlines. It’s time to modernize healthcare with technology features that enable the measurement of RTA.

As medical front desk, scheduling and marketing teams realize the importance of leveraging communication and CRM tools, they will play a key role in helping the provider organizations recover revenue in 2021 and work through the critical backlog of delayed care from 2020. By digitizing workflows, cutting off referral leakage and keeping a steady stream of referred patients scheduled, there will be a significant positive impact on patients as well as organizations’ profitability and longevity.


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