We at MedMan are on the road a lot. One of the most valuable tools is not a tool at all, but a holder of tools. The backpack. It has everything I need to bring a toolkit of success to medical practices. Here is what I am talking about: Oh… one more thing for success…it cannot be contained in a backpack. Indeed it is quite ethereal. It is everywhere but hard to see. I can’t bring it to a client. I can come and go, but it stays on-site and it drives success. It has been defined as “the way we do things around here”. You named it - It’s the culture. CEOs, Executive Directors and Practice Administrators create the culture, right? Not exactly, but they do set the tone for culture. Establishing an

Earlier this year, while attending the national conference for oral and maxillofacial surgery practices, I had the opportunity to attend Dave Weber’s session on the X-Factors to Success. Dave walked the group through an engaging, energetic, and comedic presentation, based on his book, The X Factor: 12 Keys to Set Your Practice Apart. I decided to show a short clip of his presentation (found here), based on his “Quack Attack” approach at a staff meeting. While this funny 3-minute clip provided some levity and laughter to the meeting, that wasn’t the primary reason I was showing it. After we watched and we all had a good laugh, I asked the group why they thought I showed the clip. “Because we

A number of years ago, MedMan was introduced to the book Who: The A Method for Hiring by Geoff Smart and Randy Street. The beliefs and approaches that the book outlined are something that we ultimately adopted with some fine tuning to reflect our culture and industry. Among the many nuggets that we took away was the idea of creating a scorecard for each position we recruit for. Job descriptions are important, but creating the scorecard is an exercise for us to articulate, to a greater level of detail, what success would look like for the position. The desired outcomes and required competencies for one position are not the same for another. The job description, nuances of the particular depar

I've stumbled into a half-decent hiring process that has brought us some great people. First, I post positions on indeed.com. After reviewing resumes and narrowing down candidates, I send a message inviting them to call our office for a phone interview with me. This puts the ball in their court and requires they pick up a phone and talk to a person (gasp!) -- sadly, this is no small feat for the rising generation of texters and snappers. Not surprisingly, only a percentage of the invited candidates take this step. Those who pass my stage go on to interview in-person with a team of staff, and I let them make the final call. Sounds risky, but I like it for two reasons: 1) they can't blame me f

We run reports. We manage our people. We innovate the heck out of our clinics but how often are we in personal contact with the people we’re meant to serve? When was the last time you interacted face to face with a patient? And don’t you dare count patient complaints, those are not by choice! A few months ago, while I was spending time in one of our client’s clinics, I was fortunate enough to have a conversation with a patient out in the lobby. She was in quite a bit of pain but was just simply a joy to be around. We spoke about a variety of topics; her family, the wonderful town she lives in, how much she loves our doctor and why she felt she was getting better under this provider’s care. A

I recently visited “the hospital of the future” in Lisbon, Portugal. Its applied technologies included this robot in each patient room that stayed with the patient after discharge. Hanging out at home with the patient, this robot through interactive real time video and audio keep the patient connected with the same care team she had become comfortable with as an inpatient. Results—shorter hospital stays and reduced readmissions. Check out this research / care center here. It’s a great time to be in healthcare!

Humility is in the literature these days. As scholars write about healthcare, there is light being shined on the importance of leaders to demonstrate humility. And it is not just healthcare, we are in the era of adaptive change that requires us to figure out new ways to innovate. Leaders cannot do that alone, yet leadership requires strong opinions, strong convictions – hard to hold in check when the best idea may come from someone on the front line of patient care. Humility is a good thing - I am quite sure I am right about this. What I may be wrong about is my thought that a one payer system would be a good thing. Seeing the chaos and complexity of multiple payers, multiple payment methodo