Tag: meaningful

What PCPs Should Know About Asking for a Hospice Consult as a PCP

Posted on by VettersEnt

Once you’ve determined that hospice care might be the best course of treatment for one of your patients, it’s time to formulate a plan to discuss hospice care and arrange for a hospice consult. Making that recommendation can be easier said than done, especially since hospice care has many connotations that go along with it. What do you need to know about hospice care for your patients?

What Is Hospice Care?

Whenever someone is facing a life-limiting illness, the goal of their medical care should be a team-oriented approach to care, pain management, emotional support and spiritual support that is customized to the patient. In surveys, many caregivers and families of terminally ill patients indicate that they would have liked information about hospice care when the diagnosis was labeled as terminal, not later in the process. While communicating this might not be comfortable, you should keep this in mind.

Delivering Bad News

One of the best methods for delivering bad news in the medical field is SPIKES. SPIKES represents a 6-stage process: set up, perception, invitation, knowledge, emotion and summary.

  • Set Up: Choose the right environment for the discussion and ensure medical consensus beforehand.
  • Perception: Ask the patient what they know about the illness and any information they already know. Ask the patient what matters most to them and what their wishes are. You should also ask if the patient has heard of hospice care and what they know about it.
  • Invitation: Ask the patient if it’s okay if you share information about hospice care with them.
  • Knowledge: Provide the patient with information before the hospice consult. Let the patient know that hospice can help them meet their goals of staying at home instead of going to the hospital, pain management and emotional support. Also, let the patient know what hospice care provides.
  • Emotion: Express sympathy for the patient. For example, “I know this isn’t good news to hear,” or “I’m sorry that I have to be the one to tell you this.”
  • Summary: When patients get a lot of information at once, it can be hard for them to process things. At the end of the conversation, ask the patient what they understood. You should also state clearly your recommendation that the patient have a hospice consult so they understand what the next step should be.

Recommending a Hospice Consult

You should determine whether or not a patient is eligible for hospice care. Medicare mandates that patients have a life expectancy of 6 months or less if the illness runs the expected course. You must be able to certify the terminal diagnosis and prognosis or re-certify them. To obtain a hospice consult, you must request it from a hospice service provider. The provider will evaluate the patient, determine eligibility and establish a care plan.

Practice Guidance for Your Practice from Vetters Enterprises

Vetters Enterprises specializes in practice management, private practice business support and revenue cycle optimization. We can perform in-depth assessments of your practice or facility and identify potential issues. Let us keep your business as healthy as you keep your patients! Give us a call at (443) 352-0088.

How to Empower Patients Throughout the Diagnostic Process

Posted on by VettersEnt

When asked what they would improve about their patients, many doctors will indicate the desire for patients to take more control over their health, whether that means putting recommendations into practice or making an effort to build relationships with their doctors. How can you empower your practice’s patients throughout the diagnostic process?

What Do Patients Want from the Healthcare Experience?

A 2016 study of patients examined what patients want the most from their providers. A whopping 75% of patients indicated the desire for a more personal relationship with their providers. The majority of patients also wanted greater convenience and access to digital tools. These desires especially come to a head when patients are experiencing an illness or ailment and going through the diagnostic process.

Embrace the Benefits of the Internet

Building a relationship with patients doesn’t mean spending hours in each appointment getting to know their favorite color. Instead, it means being open to a patient’s concerns and being accessible where and when they need you. The internet is an amazing tool for staying connected with patients and empowering them throughout the diagnostic process. When most patients have a concern, they will head straight to the internet to learn more and ask questions. If your practice offers a secure health portal where they can find out more and send messages, patients will be able to equip themselves with knowledge and feel more understood.

Communicate Clearly and Offer Actionable Plans

Empowering a patient does not start or stop in the exam room. Since so many patients feel comfortable seeking health information from other sources (that may or may not be reputable), it’s important for doctors to offer them clear, achievable and realistic action plans. Giving patients accurate information will soothe fears that inevitably occur during the diagnostic process and prevent patients from clinging to false ideas.

Encourage Wearables and Tracking Methods

If patients are concerned about their health or going through the diagnostic process, encourage them to track symptoms and activities that promote health. Whenever patients actually start to measure and pay attention to their health, they will be more empowered to make the changes necessary to improve the metrics. From keeping a food diary to tracking blood sugar, small changes can add up to lifestyle transformations.

Partner with Vetters Enterprises Help with Your Value-Based Care Reporting

Vetters Enterprises specializes in practice management, private practice business support and revenue cycle optimization. We can perform in-depth assessments of your practice or facility and identify potential issues. Let us keep your business as healthy as you keep your patients! Give us a call at (443) 352-0088.

Preventing Physician Burnout in Your Practice

Posted on by VettersEnt

Physician burnout is a serious problem. A physician lifestyle survey in 2015 found that over 46% of physicians indicated that they were experiencing burnout. This issue does not just have an effect on the doctor experiencing it, but it also affects the quality of care that patients receive and, potentially, the future of the practice entirely.

The Consequences of Physician Burnout

Before we dive into how physician burnout can be prevented, we’re going to discuss why it is such a bad thing. Burnout leads to:

  • Low patient satisfaction rates
  • Poor patient care quality
  • An escalated number of medical error rates
  • High malpractice risk
  • Increased physician and staff turnover rates
  • Potential drug abuse and alcohol addiction

More worryingly, physician burnout can also be fatal. Suicide rates for male and female physicians are higher than the general population average and widely under-reported.

The Three Signs of Physician Burnout

The most commonly accepted standards for burnout were developed in the 1970s, and there are three core symptoms:

  1. Exhaustion: Low physical and emotional energy levels.
  2. Depersonalization: Cynicism, sarcasm and the need to vent about patients and work constantly.
  3. Lack of Efficacy: Doubting the quality and meaning of work.

The 7 Steps to Prevent Burnout in Your Practice

The American Medical Association lays out 7 key steps to stop your nurses and doctors from experiencing burnout.

  1. Use wellness as a quality indicator for your practice to see how your doctors and nurses are doing.
  2. Create a wellness group (if you have a large practice) or select a wellness coordinator (if you have a small practice) who can promote wellness resources available to physicians and model positive behaviors.
  3. Offer every employee an annual wellness survey that is a good indicator of whether or not an individual might be struggling with burnout.
  4. Meet regularly with other leaders in your practice to discuss potential interventions and survey results.
  5. Don’t be afraid to initiate selective interventions to address burnout as you identify parts of your practice that might aggravate it. Communication, workflow and facility improvements could all be completed during this step.
  6. After your interventions have been in place for some time, offer your survey again to see if stress and burnout levels have decreased.
  7. Using your data, continue to refine interventions and improve your practice.

Partner with Vetters Enterprises for Help Taking Your Practice to the Next Level

Vetters Enterprises specializes in practice management, private practice business support and revenue cycle optimization. We can perform in-depth assessments of your practice or facility and identify potential issues. Let us keep your business as healthy as you keep your patients! Give us a call at (443) 352-0088.

How Can Volunteering Help Your Physicians Recharge?

Posted on by VettersEnt

Experts have known for a long time that volunteering is a good thing. After all, what could be bad about giving back to the communities around us? However, new research is suggesting that volunteering is also good for your body and mind. Physicians who are looking to recharge and reignite their passion for helping others can benefit from taking time to volunteer.

The Mental Health Benefits

Volunteering has a wonderful effect on mental health. According to the Corporation for National and Community Service, much of that stems from social integration theory. Social integration theory is the idea that the social connections between individuals provide meaning and purpose and satisfaction. Individuals who volunteer feel accomplishment from giving back and also gain fulfillment from being in a helpful role. Another study of older adults found that volunteering can buffer the sense of loss that they felt as they lost other identities, like being a wage-earner or parent.

The Physical Health Benefits

One study from Carnegie Mellon University found that adults over the age of 50 who regularly volunteered had a lower likelihood of developing high blood pressure. As most physicians know, high blood pressure is a major risk factor for heart disease, stroke and premature death. While the link between physical health and volunteering might be incidental, it goes to show that doing good can also do your body a whole lot of good.

Why Volunteering for Physicians?

Long days and nights at a medical practice can make it easy to forget why doctors went into medicine in the first place—to help others. If doctors and nurses in your practice need to recharge, volunteering is the perfect way to do so. What are some of the other benefits of volunteering?

  • Increase social interactions with people other than patients and co-workers during the week.
  • Provide a sense of satisfaction and increase self-esteem.
  • Add career experience in other fields to your resume, like public speaking, writing or business development.
  • Stay mentally and physically active outside of work.
  • Enjoy the rush of endorphins and happy feelings associated with volunteering (similar to how you feel after a great workout).

Partner with Vetters Enterprises for Help Taking Your Practice to the Next Level

Vetters Enterprises specializes in practice management, private practice business support and revenue cycle optimization. We can perform in-depth assessments of your practice or facility and identify potential issues. Let us keep your business as healthy as you keep your patients! Give us a call at (443) 352-0088.

PARTY TIME!!

Posted on by VettersEnt

So I moved into my own officeclose-up-of-explosion-of-champagne-bottle-cork2 on October 1, 2016!  It’s amazing to believe that only 3.5 years ago I was scared as hell to be leaving Corporate America and embarking on this new journey.  I had no confidence, no marketing ability, and really no idea if I could actually make it in my chosen field.  So I took steps to ensure success.  I joined a networking group and got over my fear of meeting other business professionals.  I found a business coach who showed me that it is OK if someone doesn’t want what I have to offer, move on to the next potential client.  He also showed me that there is a “negative voice” inside that needs to be pushed out and never listened to.  I also surrounded myself with others who complemented my skills with theirs and together we bounced ideas off each other, supported each other and made each other’s business grow as a result.  Most importantly my confidence in what I could do, make and achieve for myself exploded.   Now I’m celebrating my success as a result of relentless perseverance and shear will.

So for any of you who have beaten yourself up in a cube for several years because it only seems like you can get so far.  Or lost that promotion you were sure to have gotten to someone else who clearly was a chump and didn’t know anything about the project.  Or stuck up for what was right only to have it overturned by the “powers that be” because it was all about the MONEY.  Or most importantly, got downsized and left to pick up the pieces and send your resume to every job on Monster, Career Builder, and even Craigslist, just to be told you are too qualified, too old, or too whatever their excuse may be.  Find your WHY and get out there and do it.  Take the chance, drain your 401K to finance it, you only have one life to live so make it the best life you can possibly live.  Enjoy, hell love, what you do for the first time in your life.  If it works, it will be all you and no one else can take it away from you.  If it fails, start over, don’t ever give up.  To quote Thomas Edison “I have not FAILED, I just found 10,000 ways how not make a light bulb”.  Make your light bulb.

The Perils of Business Ownership

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Now don’t get me wrong, I love being my own boss.  This is what I have waited for all my life, I think.  When you have been raised under the poverty line you do everything you can to make sure that when you finally get to be an adult that you never dip below that line again.

Thus has been my goal throughout my life.  I think when you add children into the mix it becomes a serious goal.  Reaching my 30s-40s it seemed like the stuff I had gave me status in my mind.  I had a house, garage, 2 cars, a kid, nice stuff.  I must have made it somehow.  Certainly better than my parents did, I thought, in my mind.  As I am moving out of my 40s and soon into the big 5-0 I realized that I had it all wrong.  As a person with an innate entrepreneurial spirit, you are always wanting more, and it isn’t more stuff.  That isn’t what does it.  It’s more meaning and purpose in your life that turns the motor on.  I realized this when I buried my parents 7 months and 10 days apart.  All their stuff, their memories, prized possessions now became scrutinized by everyone and their purpose in life became increasingly more obscured.  What were they here for.  Surely this pile of old clothes and pots and pans didn’t tell that story.

So I began my journey into business ownership because I wanted my purpose in life to be more important than what the money from a “job” got me.  Oh I won’t lie, when the business isn’t doing well all I am thinking about is what am I going to have to give up or what am I going to lose, my house, my car, all of it.  But yet I still get up and I still try and find new ways to get my business name and purpose out there, I’m not giving up the spirit that drives me, that innate entrepreneurial spirit that has taken hold of me and made me the mad woman I am today.

I love running the show, I love being my own boss, I love what I do for the first time.  Is it scary…HELL TO THE YEAH!  But it’s my rules, my vision, my choice.  I’ve got some great support and one hell of a marketing director and we are going to make it.  And for the first time in decades my back brain is not saying “you should be doing something else, this isn’t you”.  You don’t know how long I have wanted to quiet that voice.  I think he’s finally speechless for a while.