So much of what we do revolves around communication. That topic is a focus of this blog, largely because we at the company are building a communications tool. Which got us thinking about the importance of good communication when things go wrong. That, in turn, led us to thinking about crises in general - how people respond and how crises can be managed. As we looked around the web and crisis management articles, we pulled some common themes and suggestions, and compiled them here. You’re running a medical practice, so of course we’re not going to tell you and your team how to handle acute medical situations. And any crisis tends to require a similar process as in a medical emergency, so nothing here will be too new. Even so, and even though we’re not a PR firm, we hope that this will be a useful reminder that other situations may come up and help you prepare for them.

We love mobile technology here at BeckonCall. It’s what we do, it’s all we think about. Sometimes, though, we spend so much time working on our mobile platform that we don’t come for air to give props to other people out there making cool apps. So, knowing that we’re all working to make your job as a practice administrator easier and more efficient, here are a few apps we think are worth checking out for you and your providers.

Good medical care can’t be a one-way street. Patients must engage in their own care, being proactive in minimizing the risk of problems where possible and adhering to prescribed therapies when things do go wrong. In addition to the primary goal of improving health, good patient engagement has the added benefit of building the relationship between your practice and the people coming to you for care. This has the potential to boost retention and referrals, making patient engagement programs a good business decision, as well. Furthermore, in the age of value-based care, improving outcomes is a critical piece of reimbursement. And when patients take control of their health, outcomes improve.

As we were drafting this post, Amazon’s S3 storage service went down for several hours. Even if you weren’t aware of exactly what was happening from a technical standpoint, you probably noticed services or websites that weren’t working on February 28. Amazon S3 underpins a lot of the internet so there was quite a bit of consternation when it decided to take a nap. The S3 service guarantees 99.9% uptime and, according to the TechCrunch article linked above, has been consistent outside of two notable events. Despite the high profile problem, Amazon and its competitors offer extremely reliable services. Therefore, that event certainly adds a new context to the topic of cloud-based storage, but doesn’t really change anything that follows. So here we go…

People are talking about you. Not just you, but anyone who offers a product or a service. It’s always been the case that humans seek information and validation about, well, everything, from people they trust. Social proof is an incredibly powerful force. That’s great when the social proof is positive. What about when it’s negative? And, with something as sensitive and emotional as medical care, how should healthcare providers think about online reviews?

Start ‘em young, they say. Who is “they?” Anyone with an opinion. What are we starting ‘em on? Anything “they” happen to have an opinion about: Violin lessons, golf, holding the door open for their elders…

In this case, we at BeckonCall are talking about starting young physicians working with good healthcare IT during their training. From a utilization standpoint, IT and communications tools should be approached much the same way as diagnostics, implants and drugs. Namely, if a new tool is evidence-based, useful to a clinician’s practice, and financially beneficial, it should be considered for use. Like a new therapeutic intervention, this doesn’t mean that medical practices should automatically switch to the latest and greatest. But clinicians should have access to select, cutting edge products that will help them advance their nascent practices and medicine in general.

“Yes, excuse me? Um, my appointment was scheduled for 1:30. It’s 1:48.”

You’ve heard that line and, possibly, delivered that line. Nobody likes that line. That line represents a cost in emotional and financial terms. So, how do we make that line obsolete?

In fact, we have a few ideas. Like them, love them, or hate them, here are several ways to reduce patient wait times at your medical practice.

A word of warning, though: Wait time in and of itself isn’t the ultimate metric. Studies among cancer patients have indicated that the cause of a wait isn’t necessarily correlated with a patient’s favorable/unfavorable perception of a wait, and that a patient’s feelings about a wait depend on more than just raw minutes off the clock. On top of that, a group of orthopedic patients indicated that time with their physician, play a bigger role in - or at least was more associated with - satisfaction than wait time.

Sometimes, even the most amazing technology can be held back by a discomfort with change. People do their best to avoid situations where the perceived risk is greater than the potential payoff, and evolution ensures that the predisposition towards extreme risk taking will never be a predominant trait. This plays out all over society, in decisions big and small. Here at BeckonCall, we’ve been hearing from many practice managers that our service sounds great, but they don’t want to “rock the boat” with their doctors.

In other words, they - you - like the potential payoff but prefer to avoid the risk of problems with other members of your practice.  Which could happen because those physicians, in turn, feel that hypothetical gains from a different piece of healthcare technology don’t sufficiently outweigh the perceived risk of switching.

We want to help you get over these objections so that you can help people in your practice do the same. The ultimate goal is not to make you comfortable with switching healthcare technology solutions for the sake of trying something different, but to be more comfortable with making those changes when the alternative is actually an improvement for your practice. If a company has a better way to do things - and yes, we at BeckonCall are confident that is the case - then we want to help your entire team move beyond the status quo and the easy answer that “it’s always been done that way.”

Here are a few ideas on how you can respond to objections to new technology:

There’s a saying that has floated around the technology industry for the past few years: “Good technology gets out of your way.” It’s not exactly clear where the statement originated, although Google has long subscribed to the idea and used it in media relations. Similarly, though Apple itself does not use the saying, people have pointed to the tech giant’s easy-to-use products as an example of what it means. According to this mentality, a good piece of mass-market technology should act as a catalyst, lowering the energy barrier to accomplish a task. Early adopters may be willing to tolerate extra friction created by a new, imperfect product, but the population at large wants technology that works and makes their lives easier.

Unfortunately, healthcare IT is an industry where progress towards this ideal has been slow. All too many healthtech solutions add rather than reduce frustration and effort. BeckonCall, along with many other healthtech startups, are working to resolve this deficit and give doctors more time to do what’s most important: spending time with their patients. We can’t solve all of the problems you might be facing in your practice when it comes to IT, but we have compiled a few things to consider when you’re looking at adding or changing healthIT solutions at your practice.

“How can I increase the profitability of my medical practice?”

 It’s a question that every practice manager, every provider, has running through her mind on a constant loop. The challenge of providing the best possible patient care while keeping the lights on and ensuring full regulatory compliance is an endless juggling act. Changes in the reimbursement landscape and increased patient volume due to the Affordable Care Act have added complexity to maintaining a profitable practice. As a result, the need to find creative ways to maintain (or increase) margins without compromising patient care has only become more acutely felt in recent years.

There are, of course, only two ways to do this: cut costs and/or increase revenue. If you cut costs too much, you run the risk of alienating patients and/or staff. Everything in life can be measured on a bell curve. If you cut too deep, you’ll fall from peak profitability due to inefficiencies, poor morale, and reduced volume. So, the key is to save where possible but perhaps look more towards adding revenue. What does that look like in practice? We have compiled a few ideas for you to think about over this upcoming holiday season.