Small Practice Management Essentials
Running a physician’s practice is complicated and requires the sophisticated management of multiple processes, including the revenue cycle, compliance, human resources, health information technology, quality metrics, and quality improvement, and general business processes.
To survive in the changing health care market, small practices require additional resources and improved business acumen to navigate complex reimbursement and payment systems. This is why the Primary Care Development Corporation (PCDC) has developed a new Small Practice Management Essentials course for key non-provider staff from small primary care practices.
The course supports small practices to adopt and sustain operational efficiencies and to prepare for participation in practice transformation and value-based payment. It also empowers staff members who participate to acquire and hone the skill set necessary to work independently in the role of Practice Manager, freeing up clinical providers to focus on patient care.
Course 1: Professionalizing Customer Service
Customer service in health care is often referred to as customer excellence. Service excellence is the ability of health care professionals to consistently meet and manage patient expectations. During this course, participants will gain an understanding of the following elements of customer service excellence:
- building rapport
- choosing your words wisely
- empowering customers to overcome obstacles
- utilizing emotional intelligence
Course 2: Electronic Medical Records (EMRs)
EMRs are real-time, patient-centered records that make information available instantly and securely to authorized users. They have the unique capability of being able to collect, assess, monitor, and manage data. This course will cover several EMR best practices, which include:
- utilizing structured data fields
- avoiding free text usage and copy/paste
- ensuring consistent data
- closing and locking patient records
- empaneling your patients
Course 3: Population Health Management (PHM)
Population health management (PHM) is an approach to care that leverages information on a group of patients within a primary care practice to improve overall patient care and clinical outcomes.
This course will address the importance of care management, ideas for getting started, and PHM project examples.
Course 4: Incentives
There are many health care quality incentive programs out there. This course identifies significant programs that PCDC believes to be most applicable to your practice:
- Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) MIPS is one of two tracks in the Quality Payment Program, a payment incentive program implemented by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).
- Pay for Performance (P4P) P4P, also known as value-based purchasing, is a payment model that offers financial incentives for meeting quality metrics. Gaps-in-care reports are a key way that health plans evaluate your performance measures.
Course 5: Quality Improvement (QI)
This course covers the 5 steps in Quality Improvement Methodology:
- Set the Aim What are you trying to accomplish?
- Establish Measures How will you know when a change is an improvement?
- Select Changes What changes will result in improvement?
- Test the Changes PLAN-DO-STUDY-ACT Cycles
- Implement the Changes Apply the change to your whole practice
Customized Trainings
PCDC offers comprehensive, hands-on trainings for health care staff and providers that are customized to accommodate any group’s unique needs. With workshops ranging from improving patient-practitioner communication to overcoming barriers in health literacy, PCDC’s courses encourage team building and foster healthy workplace habits.
