The end result is poor performance and an unpleasant work environment, which impacts not just the employees and physicians, but the patients and the public perception of the practice as well. Adding a key staff member in a critical area, admitting that there have been problems, and implementing corrective action plans can lead to rapid improvement. The warning signs just reviewed may seem intuitive, but they are sometimes less obvious in the fast-paced environment in which most health care organizations operate today. Worse yet, many of today's medical practice management structures are simply not equipped to recognize and address some of these dangers. The irony, of course, is that ultimately it is the physicians themselves whose livelihoods are at risk.
Doctors are also often in the best position to notice many of the changes discussed.
Health care executives at all levels have a responsibility to be aware of the importance of these problems and to be willing to accept that reductions in overhead may not be the best answer to reduced revenue. Medical groups with truly appropriate resources will be more stable, better able to serve their patients, and better able to focus on marketing, managed care contracting and other functions that help retain current business and bring in new sources of revenue. Jeffrey E. Sinaiko is senior vice president of HPEN, Inc., a Los Angeles-based health care management consulting firm specializing in providing business and management services to medical groups and integrated systems across the United States. Accuracy and consistency are the keys to a successful billing operation and they are the first things to go when staff gets stretched too thinly. Health care executives at all levels have a responsibility to be aware of the importance of these problems and to be willing to accept that reductions in overhead may not be the best answer to reduced revenue.