Howard Savage M.D.

To be honest, most meetings we attend as physicians have an informal quality about them. Conducting a proper meeting is like taking a patient to the OR. The more process driven the surgery the better the outcome. A meeting that is process driven, that abides by the rules of meeting dynamics all of a sudden becomes different from all the other…[Read more]

I think brainstorming as described in the presentation gets around shyness or uneven contribution.  In brainstorming everyone makes a contribution.  You go around the table and everyone must contribute and you write it on a while board.   I also like the brainwriting approach.  That avoids those who are not as confident in the public cont…[Read more]

Your BATNA is your most important negotiating tool.  Let say all parties took this negotiation course.  That just doesn’t mean you, it means the team that you represent.  Your team does its homework and understands that the market has given you a weak BATNA.  Let’s say opposing party also understands this as he or she did homework and und…[Read more]

Great observation Irene.  Here is my take.  I understand that we all work under an organizational framework.  I also know most organizations have a stated mission.  I also know that most organizations are not mission sensitive.  They rarely refer to mission in their decision making process.  In this situation personal mission oversized corpo…[Read more]

Hi Katelin, I saw your discussion with Joe.  Identifying the problem to be solved is the most important feature of improvement.  Spending time solving the wrong problem is frustrating and time consuming.  It seems you are identifying the problem os provider burnout and you jump immediately to a cause of clerical tasks.  You might fall into the mis…[Read more]

I like that idea of doing the brainwriting prior to the meeting; I agree that so many times the ideas come after the meeting is done & people have had time to “digest” a little bit. Although I’ve never tried these formats, its sounds interesting & something I may try out!

Joe, you’ve hit the main problems that plague my practice as well (family medicine at a community health center/FQHC). The provider burnout on clerical tasks is one of the biggest ones that keeps me up at night. Metrics that I’d like to be able to measure to characterize the problem:

-Total time spent by providers “logged in” to the…[Read more]

I am not surprised to find out that you are way ahead on the menoting front, Irene.  The one suggestion I would have for you is to formalize it in some way.  Create an SOP that formalizes the mentoring process.  Use that as a standard for all the mentoring done across your organization.  That way everyone has input into the SOP which creates buy…[Read more]

Welcome to the class.  I know Hancock well, it is the exit off the highway to go to Whitetail.  Plus I have spent many hours in Hagerstown when I coached youth ice hockey.  I look forward to the challenge of relating business skills that are relevant to your everyday practice.  One thing about what we do here is we give you education that tra…[Read more]

Hi Barbara, welcome to the class.  We are kind of neighbors, I live in Arnold and spend a lot of time in Annapolis.  We have had several students who work at AAMC.  I appreciate your pursuit for business knowledge.  You will find skills here in this class that you can use immediately.  Plus you will obtain the language of business that is so effe…[Read more]

Welcome to the class Reza.  I will be highly interested in your opinion on the place for business skills in rank and file physicians knowledge bank.  Your representation of a national provider group is a unique perspective.  There is a lot of viewpoints building up in the discussion boards supporting the use of business skill in daily pr…[Read more]

Great comment Dan

This almost seems like a strategy issue.  How do you respond to a decrease in cases and the accompanying reduction in revenue?  CPI and PDSA are really directed toward process.  Responding to market conditions needs strategy.  I would begin with re-examining the mission of your group and then considering the vision of what nee…[Read more]

I have a friend who I have visited on his farm in Kansas for more than 20 years.  He has had knee pain for several years and over time I had gradually noticed him doing less and less walking.  This last year it seems much worse.  At one point we were walking in a field and he caught his foot on a milo stalk, kind of like stubbing your toe, and he…[Read more]

Thanks for the comment Banda.

First thing you do is recognize the arbitrary nature of charges.  In reality it does not matter what the charge is as long as you do not use that as a standard for self pay.  You know you will never get paid the “charged” rate, but it could show up on a self pay because they have no built in discounts.   Don’t for…[Read more]

My reply to Sabir

Great comment Sabir. The think I love a business is the interdigitating quality of the skills. You will see a true consistency in financial, leadership, strategy, and improvement skills. As a provider it all begins at the patient and trying to have the best outcomes in both clinical and experience. That is why we all were…[Read more]