In future years, electronic medical records will help streamline this and many other processes around the hospital. Advance directives is one key phrase. I'm convinced most or all of the regulations do improve patient care, but even if they don't, they still facilitate hospital operations and need to be done. We've tried to make complying with the regulations as painless as possible for good doctors. And in so doing, we're also trying to provide added value by making the information on the forms useful for patient care.
Physicians are fiercely independent.
As Larry says, our challenge is to make the need to accept some rigorous understanding and compliance with regulations something we can accept and not rebel against. But stop for a moment. Eighty-five percent of these regulations make a lot of sense and really work for us, and we just have to accept the other 15 percent and not get too upset about them. If we are out of compliance on a serious issue, then we get a level 1 citation and we have to come back with some form of corrective action within a few months or a year. To take action and prepare for a follow-up visit, we must divert money and other resources away from things that really improve the quality of care of patients.