Showing posts with label surgeon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label surgeon. Show all posts

Sunday, August 22, 2021

How to evaluate waiting room furniture

When designing the waiting room at your practice, one of the most critical aspects is the seating you choose. Safety and comfort should be your top priorities. You want your patients to feel welcomed and cared for from the moment they enter your healthcare facility.


With the variety of chairs now available on the market, your options can be overwhelming. Here are some tips to help you during your search.




Start with the Frame and Foundation


A good chair starts in the frame. Most quality chairs either have a wood or metal frame. Steel is the most common metal of choice for chair manufacturers. Keep in mind that the smaller the gauge, the stronger the steel. A typical range you will see for chairs is 16-to-18-gauge steel, which usually holds around 1,000 pounds or more.

In addition to the frame, most chairs have a seat foundation and back built with wood. Pay attention to the product specs to see what materials were used in the foundation. Industrial grade plywood is typically your sturdiest option; however, many chair manufacturers use imitation particle board, strand board, or artificial composites to save money that will not last as long as real plywood.


Keep Comfort in Mind


While durability is important, your patients will appreciate comfort most. A strong foundation and frame do not guarantee the chair will be comfortable; rather, the foam in the seat is what ensures comfort. Foam provides a vital padding between the hard seat foundation and the person sitting on the chair.

  • Be aware that some chair manufacturers use remanufactured foam in their seats. This reused foam will break down more quickly than virgin foam. It is also not as firm to begin with, thus reducing comfort levels. Some manufacturers will go the extra step of creating a double layer of foam for added support. Pay attention to the product specs or reach out to the supplier for additional information.


Consider Safety and Health


Healthcare facilities rely on disinfection procedures to keep patients safe, but some materials are harder to clean than others. Certain materials will be damaged by harsh chemicals. Wood is especially difficult to properly disinfect without harming the finish. Steel, on the other hand, stands up to most cleaners.

When it comes to upholstery, fabric is not a good material for most healthcare waiting rooms. It is difficult to properly disinfect and tends to harbor bacteria. You are better off choosing vinyl or polyurethane upholstery.

Another vital safety component is chemical emissions. Some chairs emit dangerous levels of chemicals, polluting indoor air and endangering patient health. Luckily, there are independent organizations that test chair and furniture emissions. Look for certifications from organizations such as Materials Analytical Services, LLC, which offers the MAS Certified Green emissions testing program.




Research the Supplier’s Reputation


The last thing to consider before you make a purchase is the supplier’s reputation. While there are many honest vendors, there are also some who cut corners, use the cheapest materials possible, and refuse to offer a meaningful warranty. In extreme cases, I have even seen chair vendors go bankrupt and fail to deliver paid-for products. Therefore, it’s important to be aware of who you’re working with when you purchase seating.

Here are some questions to get you started with vendor research:
  • When was the company founded (i.e., how long have they existed)?
  • Have they ever declared bankruptcy?
  • Do they have a significant number of bad reviews?
  • What type of materials do they use in their products?
  • Do they offer a formal warranty that is easy to understand and use?

Are they the original manufacturers or a reseller? While resellers may not necessarily be an issue, they do not have control over the quality of the chairs.

Choosing waiting room seating can be a more complex process than anticipated. Keep these criteria in mind as you’re comparing different vendors. While higher quality models are more expensive, the up-front investment will pay off in the future with increased durability and quality.

Ultimately, it comes down to value. You must carefully balance price, durability, and comfort to provide a good experience for your patients.


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Thursday, July 15, 2021

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Wednesday, July 7, 2021

How to choose an ACO partner

More than one-third of U.S. healthcare payments flow through an advanced payment model (APM), such as shared savings, shared risk or capitated payment. Yet for the majority of physician practices, most of their revenue is not tied to risk-based arrangements, leading to significant opportunities to participate in these models.


Accountable care organizations (ACOs) can be a good starting point for an APM journey because this type of model starts with upside risk only, which allows practices to test the waters before wading into more complex arrangements that require them to assume greater risk. While not the most flexible type of value-based care model, ACOs do offer greater flexibility than fee-for-service, paying providers for things like provider collaboration and care management, while addressing social determinants of health and more.

To realize strong clinical and financial results with an ACO model, it is critical to choose one that aligns with your practice’s mission, values, and strategic priorities. In addition, you should look for one that is committed to robust communication and support throughout the relationship. What does that look like in practice? Here are some key areas to assess.



Administration


A high-performing ACO must have a dedicated board in place whose members support the payer risk-sharing model, have influence in the local healthcare community and are respected by physician and non-physician peers. All providers participating in the ACO must be excited about the model and know their role in making it successful.

However, facilitating board recruitment and provider engagement can be time consuming, so it’s wise to look for an ACO that has a dedicated team for these activities. Such a group can handle complex tasks, including facilitating board meetings, working groups and committees, and managing contracts, credentialing and peer review. Administrative teams should ease the physician burden of ACO management and facilitate communication between all participants. To ensure the entity’s long-term viability, the administrative team should be working to identify improvement and growth opportunities and guide change management.


Data and analytics


To accomplish its mission, an ACO needs real-time data from across the care continuum that providers can use to identify patients with care gaps and guide interventions to close those gaps. The more comprehensive the data, the more likely participating providers will have access to a complete picture of the care happening outside their four walls. This requires a platform that can automatically capture data from disparate sources and normalize it for use within different electronic health records (EHRs), so providers can use it in decision-making without having to toggle between systems. Alerts are also important, including notification about when a patient is admitted or discharged from the hospital.

Current EHRs can encourage prompt follow-up and reduce the chances of hospital readmissions. While accessing and incorporating clinical data into the EHR is essential, an ACO should also have a strategy for collecting, analyzing, and responding to social determinants of health data because these non-clinical factors can account for more than 80% of health outcomes.


Quality improvement and reporting


Since quality is mission-critical for any ACO, it is essential that quality improvement efforts be done well. When assessing a potential ACO partner, make sure it has a sound quality strategy that spans the organization. This may involve having teams that facilitate proactive interventions like wellness visits. Or, it may entail having a group that looks at level of care decisions, such as reviewing home health services for post-acute care. Reliable and accurate quality reporting is also key. Since providers in an ACO often have different EHRs, collecting and accurately reporting quality data from across the organization can be complicated

When an ACO has knowledgeable resources committed to coordinating different quality metrics, it can make sure that what’s communicated to CMS is consistent, timely and accurate. Additionally, leaders can be sure that the ACO is focused on the most effective measures that can move the needle on care quality and cost containment.


The Key Is in the Support


Selecting the right ACO is critical to ensure a positive APM experience. ACO organizations that have a robust framework for administration, data analytics, and quality can enable best practice while reducing the burden on physicians, making participation easier and more profitable.


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