Information Managers
  • Home
  • Services
    • All Services
  • Templates
  • Blog
  • Contact Us
  • Practice Management Success
  • Podcasts

Improved Communication, Improved Dental Business

Posted on November 5, 2019 by Jean Eaton in Blog

Would you like to increase your dental business practice revenue immediately?

Maybe you have a need to maximize efficiencies and create your dream team.

Dr. Angela Mulrooney believes that when you focus on communication with your customers and create consistency in your dental practice, you will increase your revenue and reduce your working hours.

Angela Mulrooney is the Business Doctor, and today she is my guest expert.

Meet Dr. Angela Mulrooney

Angela Mulrooney is published author, a retired dentist, and a dental practice coach who resides in Calgary.

Angela Mulrooney discussed how communication with patients and your team and a marketing strategy can improve your business.

If you would like to transform your dental practice and maximize the potential within the practice so that you can focus on spending more time with patients, giving them the best care that you possibly can while trying to level up everyone's skills in the practice as well, be sure to tune in to my interview with Dr. Angela Mulrooney, Improved Communication, Improved Business Episode | #081.

Don’t Miss This!

Angela has a generous offer for you to get a complimentary 1 hour strategy call to discuss your practice.

Listen to the Practice Management Nuggets Podcast For Your Healthcare Practice Here.

#PracticeManagementNuggets, #SocialMediaGuru, Angela Mulrooney, business, coaching, dental, dental business My Business Doctor, dentist, marketing

How To Capture Patient Satisfaction With CareSay

Posted on July 2, 2019 by Jean Eaton in Blog

‘This call may be recorded to ensure quality control.’

We’ve all heard the recorded message when we call our bank or service provider .

But, is this the best way to capture patient satisfaction with their healthcare visit experience?

Are you looking for options to capture patient satisfaction with their interactions with your office staff during phone calls and their entire visit?

There are other options that require less technology, easier to implement, respects privacy, provides a more meaning constructive, helpful, feedback for your clinic team and engages your patients to improve their satisfaction.

I reached out to Brian Lee from Custom Learning Systems about his suggestions on how to explore patient satisfaction.

Brian Lee is my guest expert on Practice Management Nuggets Podcast for Your Healthcare Practice. Brian Lee is one of North America’s leading experts in the field of World-Class patient experience, staff engagement and culture change.

In this 16 minute episode, Brian Lee, shares options for the healthcare provider and business owner to easily capture and measure the patient's experience and give them an opportunity for feedback so that you can improve patient satisfaction and patient care in your healthcare practice.

 

Brian Shares His Key Tips Including

  • Options to create a patient experience survey (including CGCAPS).
  • New tools that empowers the patient to provide clinics with feedback about their experience.
New tools empowers the patient to provide clinics with feedback about their experience. Click to Tweet

My Favorite Takeaways From The Podcast

  1. Ensure that we do constructive, positive education with our caregivers.
  2. Measure the patient's experience.
  3. Empower the patient to provide the clinic and the caregivers with feedback.

Be sure to tune in to my interview with Brian Lee on How To Capture Patient Satisfaction With CareSay | Episode #077

Then, click here to get the free CareSay Review app: the unique new app to help you Connecting service providers and patients in a whole new way!

If you are a member of Practice Management Success, login here and view the webinar replay.

#digitalhealth, #PatientCenteredClinic, #PatientEngagement, #PracticeManagementNuggets, Brian Lee, CareSay, CGCAP, clinic, Everyone's a Caregiver, healthcare, medical, patient centered clinic, patient satisfaction, podcast, review

Are You Drowning in Patient Referrals?

Posted on May 13, 2019 by Jean Eaton in Blog

Are you drowning in patient referrals?

Playing telephone tag with specialists and patients?

Faxing is old technology, a massive time waster, and can be very costly both financially and emotionally when faxes get lost in the system.

In our Practice Management Nugget Webinars for Your Healthcare Practice series on October 12, 2017, I spoke with Dr. Denis Vincent, Physician Founder of ezReferral. There are many things that you can do right away to improve patient referral management.

Dr. Denis Vincent's #1 Tip to improve the patient referral process:

“Find more effective ways to involve and engage the patient in the referral process.”

 

The traditional referral workflow is inefficient

string telephoneUsing phone and fax messages from the referring provider to the consulting provider and back to the referring provider and then to the patient takes time. And every time that the message is transferred, there is a risk that the message is not understood or is lost.

So, we have a tendency to create complicated backup systems to double-check and make sure that none of the steps get missed. Many practices have created a ‘referral binder’ monster – the master referral list for the clinic. This binder is full of post-it notes, tags, and phone messages and reminders to help us make sure that the referral appointment is booked, the patient is notified, and the appropriate follow-up takes place.

Patient Referral BinderEven in practices with an electronic medical record (EMR), we use a paper process to ‘make it easier’ to track patient referrals.

But the binder can only be used by one person at a time and only seen by the people in that office. The patient has no idea about the status of their referral so they phone the office regularly to ask for updates.

Receptionist phoneBut wait! We want to make sure that everyone knows what is happening with the referral. We leave phone messages and voice mail and talk to the patient, the specialist, the referring provider to remind, confirm, and follow-up.

 

Save 60 minutes for each patient referral

Denis Vincent suggests that his family physician office referral coordinator used to spend an average of 75 minutes on each patient referral. That referral cycle can take months just to get to the point where the specialist appoint is confirmed and the patient is notified.

Now, using ezReferral, the entire referral process takes an average of 15 minutes of staff time per patient referral. That is a savings of 60 minutes per referral!

You can do this when you use a synchronous patient referral management system. EzReferral is a secure cloud-based solution that manages the patient referral process with clear real-time communication that the referring provider, specialist provider, and the patient can see at any time.

Multi-disciplinary healthcare team

Multidisciplinary referralezReferral is designed to work with any multi-disciplinary referral pattern in your practice. For example, family physician to specialist physician or any other healthcare provider.

14 days from referral order to confirming appointment. Can you do that?

Starting in January 2017, physicians in Alberta must meet new time frames for acknowledging and responding to referral requests. If you are asked to consult on a patient, you will have:[1]

  • 7 days to acknowledge receipt of the request to the referring healthcare provider.
  • 14 days to let the referring healthcare provider know whether you can accept the referral.
  • 14 days to contact the patient to schedule an appointment or to confirm the status of the referral, if no appointment date has been determined.
  • 30 days to provide the referring healthcare provider with a written report after your first appointment with the patient.
  • Consulting physicians will also need to be reasonably available to respond to referral requests and ensure their process is accessible.
  • Referring physicians will have to make sure they include all pertinent clinical information (including relevant investigation results) and the purpose of the consultation with their request, to enable the consulting physician to determine whether he/she can accept the referral within the mandated 14-day time frame.

([1] College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta)

These are good standards to meet for every type of healthcare provider.

You can meet these standards when you use a synchronous patient referral management system. EzReferral is a secure cloud-based solution that manages the patient referral process with clear real-time communication that the referring provider, specialist provider, and the patient can see at any time.

ezReferral Patient Text Message

Patient Benefits

  1. Patient Engagement
  2. Patient Satisfaction
  3. Patient Peace of Mind
  4. Better Patient Care

Referrer Benefits

  1. Happier patients
  2. Reduce workload
  3. Eliminate the “black hole”
  4. Satisfied Staff

Specialist Benefits

  1. Reduced workload
  2. Reduce no-shows
  3. Reduce phone calls
  4. Reduce overhead
  5. Audit trail


Testimonial from Edmonton Eyelids

“Our office has been using ezReferral since July 2016. It’s easy to rave about this powerful communication tool – each referral received through this system takes a fraction of the time required through our faxed referral system, due mainly to the fact that most patients choose to receive referral notifications by text and/or email (thereby eliminating the “middle ground” in which some referrals can get lost). What truly sets ezReferral apart from ANY online interface that I have ever used: the support staff is accessible, proactive, and fast.”

Shawna Sazwan
Edmonton Eyelids

Dr. Vincent has implemented ezReferral in his family practice. I have to admit, I’m blown away with his experience that 95% of the patients choose to receive their notifications by text messaging. That’s much better than I anticipated.

This solution is ideal for healthcare practices with referrals within the medical community and even better when you are working with multidisciplinary referral teams. This works well for both paper based and electronic medical record based practices.

Watch the webinar replay now to see how you can save time, money, while improving the patients’ access to health care in a timely, efficient manner. You will also discover the key steps and timelines to prepare for implementation in your practice.

Practice Management Nugget webinar interview with Denis Vincent  was recorded live on October 12, 2017.

 

Watch the Webinar

 

If you are a member of Practice Management Success, login here and view the webinar replay and access the members-only resources.

#PracticeManagementNuggets, Dr. Denis Vincent, ez Referral, ezReferral, fax, health care, healthcare, medical, patient referral management, practice management, review ezReferral

Fax Received in Error – Is this a Notifiable Privacy Breach?|

Posted on March 28, 2019 by Jean Eaton in Blog

Has this ever happened to you?

You are a clinic manager in a healthcare practice. One day, you receive a phone from a healthcare provider in another clinic.

They have received a fax with patients’ health information from someone in your clinic. But the fax is not addressed to them – they received it in error.

Is this a mandatory notifiable privacy breach under Alberta’s new Health Information Act (HIA) regulations?

Part A: Circumstances Where Notification Is Required

There are 5 triggers under the Alberta Health Information Act (HIA) that require mandatory privacy breach notification to the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner (OIPC) and the Alberta Minister of Health and the individual(s) affected in the breach.

In this scenario, the  receiving custodian accessed health information for an individual who was not his patient. Clearly, there is a reasonable basis to believe that the information has been accessed (read) by a person (section 8.1(1)(a) of the Health Information Regulation.)

However, the sending custodian had no reason to believe that the information would be misused.

Fax Sending Receiving Error

Part B: Circumstances Where Notification Is Not Required

 The sending custodian assessed the circumstances of the breach and concluded (as per section 8.1(1)(i) of the Health Information Regulation) that the receiving custodian:

  • Accessed the health information in a manner consistent with his role as a health services provider and did not do it for an improper purpose.
  • Is subject to confidentiality policies and procedures that meet the requirements of section 60 of the Act.
  • Did not use or disclose the information beyond determining that he received it in error.

The sending custodian assessed that the risk is appropriately mitigated and this privacy breach incident did not trigger mandatory notification requirements. 

Next Steps

The sending custodian must record the privacy breach in their business records. (I suggest that you use an internal privacy breach reporting form and spreadsheet. You can access these templates in the 4 Step Response Plan.) Remember to include your determination that you do not need to report this breach and the reasons that support your decision.

We know that faxes are a frequent source of privacy breach incidents. What can you do in your practice to reduce the risk of faxes in error?

Practice Management Nuggets Podcast

This topic is included in our Practice Management Nuggets podcast! Be sure to tune in to the podcast episode Fax Received in Error – Is this a Notifiable Privacy Breach? | Episode #067 .

Listen to the Podcast

My Favorite Takeaways From the Podcast

  1. Understand the mandatory privacy breach notification triggers and the circumstances where notification is not required.
  2. Record your privacy breaches – even the ones that do not trigger mandatory privacy breach notification.
  3. Review and improve your fax procedures. We know that this continues to be a frequent source of breaches. What can you do to better manage this known risk?

If you are a member of Practice Management Success, login here and view the webinar replay.

#PracticeManagementNuggets, clinic, fax, healthfare, mandatory privacy breach notification, medical, podcast, privacy breach

Are You Prepared For Patient Centered Care in Your Clinic?

Posted on February 21, 2019 by Jean Eaton in Blog

Do you have patients who come to your clinic once–and never return again?

Can’t remember the last time you did a patient satisfaction survey?

Do your patients complain about waiting too long, or not receiving the customer services that they expect?

Have your patients posted a complaint about your clinic on social media?

Do your staff ask you for training on how to empathize with difficult patients and their families?

Practice Management Nuggets Podcast

Brian Lee, CEO of Everyone's a Caregiver Learning Systems is my guest expert on Practice Management Nugget Podcast for Your Healthcare Practice. Brian Lee, CSP, is one of North America’s leading experts in the field of World-Class patient experience, staff engagement and culture change.

Brian Lee discussed options for the healthcare provider and business owner to easily deliver training to your healthcare team so that you can improve patient satisfaction and patient centered care in your clinic.

My favorite takeaways from the podcast

  1. In the patient centered clinic, everything that we see and do needs to meet the patient’s expectation or we need to manage those expectations.
  2. When you improve employee morale, you improve the patient experience, too.
  3. Most healthcare providers and support teams never receive education about healthcare customer service skills.

The return on investment of patient experience education, empowering providers and staff to deliver an enhanced, timely, patient experience, is pretty dramatic. When you are prepared for patient centered care in your clinic, you will improve patient satisfaction, and save time and money in your healthcare practice.

Be sure to tune in to my interview with Brian Lee on How Improved Patient Satisfaction Saves You Time And Money | Episode #074

Then, click here to get the free sample modules of the new Patient Centered Clinic: the unique on-line education to help you empower providers and staff to deliver an enhanced, timely, patient experience!

Patient Centered Clinic Empowerment

If you are a member of Practice Management Success, login here and view the webinar replay.

Listen to the Podcast
#PracticeManagementNuggets, Patient centered, patient centered care in Canada, patient centered care in community healthcare practices, Patient centered care in your clinic, patient centered clinic, patient centred clinic, patient-centered medical home, patient-centred, podcast

Plan a Mental Health And Safety Program For Your Staff

Posted on January 29, 2019 by Jean Eaton in Blog

Are you a clinic manager? Do you need to mental health and safety program for your staff, but you feel like expensive, boring, consultants are conspiring against you and sabotaging your success?

Do you have questions about workplace mental health or maybe you need some tools to help you?

Well, look no further because Robert Manolson will give you awesome free resources and tips that you need to plan a mental health safety program without you having to become a mental health expert. Best of all, these goodies will put you on the fast-track to workplace mental health success right now.

In Practice Management Nuggets Podcasts for Your Healthcare Practice, I interviewed Robert Manolson, of Powerful Play Experiences, on how any clinic manager can plan a mental health and safety program for your staff! You can listen to the podcast here:

Positive Workplace Mental Health | Episode #049

In this Practice Management Nugget Podcast for Your Healthcare Practice, Robert Manolson, Mental Health Champion and creator of Powerful Play Experiences will:

  • discuss why workplace mental health is important
  • introduce us to The National Standard For Psychological Health and Safety in The Workplace (Canadian Mental Health Commission )
  • share his first-hand experiences from the Psychological Health and Safety Advisor Training program
  • share totally amazing, free resources available to initiate a well thought out and organized plan to address mental health in your workplace.

Learn How To Initiate Positive Workplace Mental Health

Regardless of how you choose to use these workplace mental health ideas, don't just sit on this new knowledge and forget about it. Put it to good use so you can mental health and safety program for your staff, which is really what every leader wants, right?

As Robert Manolson says, “Start today! And lead the way!”

 

#BellLetsTalk, #PracticeManagementNuggets, Powerful Play Experiences, Psychological Health and Safety Advisor, Robert Manolson, Workplace Mental Health

How Will Mandatory Privacy Breach Reporting Affect You?

Posted on July 24, 2018 by Jean Eaton in Blog, PMN Upcoming

Mandatory Privacy Breach Reporting is Coming to Alberta!

Do you know how this will affect your healthcare practice?

. . then this free webinar is for you!

If you are a custodian–including physicians, optometrists, pharmacists, dentists, dental hygienists, chiropractors,  nurse practitioners, podiatrists, midwives, optometrists, opticians, and more!–as defined by Alberta's Health Information Act, then  . . then this free webinar is for you!

You need to know how mandatory privacy breach reporting will affect you!

In this Free Webinar, Jean L. Eaton, Your Practical Privacy Coach will explain

  • what is a privacy breach
  • why a privacy breach is a significant problem
  • why have mandatory privacy breach reporting
  • offence and penalty provisions of the HIA
  • privacy breach notification requirements
  • what you need to do before August 31, 2018

Join us for this Free webinar

Recorded LIVE Thursday July 26, 2018

Register NOW to get immediate access to the replay and valuable resources to help you prevent privacy breach pain!

. . . available for a limited time!

Register for the FREE Live Webinar Replay!

Check your email for the link to the webinar!

You will also benefit from receiving notices about upcoming events on Privacy Nuggets and similar announcements.

We don't sell or share your personal information. Ever.

 

 

Jean L Eaton, Your Practical Privacy Coach with Information Managers Ltd.

“When we know better, we can we do better.”

As an employer and health care provider, you are responsible to provide training to all of your employees about privacy awareness. Protect your organization and your patients. Equip your staff with the information they need to confidently and correctly handle personal health information.

I am constructively obsessive about privacy and confidentiality in the healthcare sector–and I think you should be, too!

I help primary care practice managers and health care providers properly manage the risk of a privacy breach, stay out of jail, avoid fines AND keep an efficient practice!

Jean L. Eaton, Your Practical Privacy Coach Information Managers Ltd.

#PracticeManagementNuggets, amendment, health care, healthcare, mandatory privacy breach reporting, medical, privacy breach, privacy breach notification, Privacy Impact Assessment

A Privacy Impact Assessment is Easy – When You Start With a Good Plan!

Posted on July 5, 2018 by Jean Eaton in PMN Live

Do you need a PIA? or a PIA amendment?

If you are a healthcare provider or clinic manager and are not sure if you need a Privacy Impact Assessment . . . then this 30 minute free webinar is for you!

If you are a custodian–including physicians, optometrists, dentists, chiropractors,  nurse practitioners, podiatrists, and more!–as defined by Alberta's Health Information Act, then you probably need a PIA.

Jean L. Eaton, Your Practical Privacy Coach will explain

  • what a PIA is,
  • why you need it, and
  • how to start planning to prepare a PIA.

Click the arrow >> below to play the video

Click To Play

     
Get access to the course right away!

Protect Your Practice, Your Assets, and Your Patients with Privacy Impact Assessments – A Complete Step-by-Step Course

“When we know better, we can we do better.”

As an employer and health care provider, you are responsible to provide training to all of your employees about privacy awareness. Protect your organization and your patients. Equip your staff with the information they need to confidently and correctly handle personal health information.

I am constructively obsessive about privacy and confidentiality in the healthcare sector–and I think you should be, too! I designed this course to assist healthcare providers, clinic managers, practice managers, privacy officers and independent healthcare practice owners provide practical privacy awareness training that was easy to implement, consistent content, cost-effective and meaningful to your day-to-day business.

When each member of your independent healthcare practice completes this privacy awareness course, you will have clearer expectations and confidence that your team will maintain the privacy, confidentiality and security of your patient’s health information. Give your patients the gift of privacy. Improve your healthcare practice with privacy awareness education.

Jean L. Eaton, Your Practical Privacy Coach Information Managers Ltd.

#PracticeManagementNuggets, amendment, health care, healthcare, medical, Privacy Impact Assessment

A Privacy Impact Assessment is Easy – When You Start With a Good Plan!

Posted on July 5, 2018 by Jean Eaton in Blog, PMN Replay, Practice Management Nugget Interview

Do you need a PIA? or a PIA amendment?

If you are a healthcare provider or clinic manager and are not sure if you need a Privacy Impact Assessment . . . then this 30 minute free webinar is for you!

If you are a custodian–including physicians, optometrists, dentists, chiropractors,  nurse practitioners, podiatrists, and more!–as defined by Alberta's Health Information Act, then you probably need a PIA.

Jean L. Eaton, Your Practical Privacy Coach will explain

  • what a PIA is,
  • why you need it, and
  • how to start planning to prepare a PIA.

Join us for this 30-minute interactive webinar

LIVE Thursday July 5, 2018

12 Noon MDT

The replay is ready! Register for the FREE 30 minute Webinar recorded live!

to receive emails

Check your email for the link to the webinar!

You will also benefit from receiving notices about upcoming events on Practice Management Nuggets Webinars for Your Healthcare Practice and similar announcements.

We don't sell or share your personal information. Ever.

 

 

“When we know better, we can we do better.”

As an employer and health care provider, you are responsible to provide training to all of your employees about privacy awareness. Protect your organization and your patients. Equip your staff with the information they need to confidently and correctly handle personal health information.

I am constructively obsessive about privacy and confidentiality in the healthcare sector–and I think you should be, too! I designed this course to assist healthcare providers, clinic managers, practice managers, privacy officers and independent healthcare practice owners provide practical privacy awareness training that was easy to implement, consistent content, cost-effective and meaningful to your day-to-day business.

When each member of your independent healthcare practice completes this privacy awareness course, you will have clearer expectations and confidence that your team will maintain the privacy, confidentiality and security of your patient’s health information. Give your patients the gift of privacy. Improve your healthcare practice with privacy awareness education.

Jean L. Eaton, Your Practical Privacy Coach Information Managers Ltd.

#PracticeManagementNuggets, amendment, health care, healthcare, medical, Privacy Impact Assessment

Right-Sizing Your Clinic Space with Sub-Leasing

Posted on April 19, 2018 by Jean Eaton in PMN Replay, PMN Stitcher

Do you need to right-size your clinic space?

Has your clinic location didn’t turn out to be as good as you expected?

Or maybe you couldn’t recruit those extra physicians or healthcare providers that you had planned?

In this Practice Management Nugget Webinar for Your Healthcare Practice, Jeff Grandfield of The Lease Coach will discuss what healthcare business owners should know about sub-leasing.

Replay is Ready!

What to Consider Before Sub-Leasing

Recorded Live Thursday April 26, 2018

Click >> Arrow To Start The Replay!

Ask Your Questions in the Chat!

Ask Your Questions by Email

Featured Guest: Jeff Grandfield

The Lease Coach

Jeff Grandfield is a senior consultant with The Lease Coach. Jeff completed his honor’s B.A. degree in business administration with a designation in marketing from Wilfrid Laurier University. It was the challenge of the real estate industry and satisfaction of working with business owners of all types and sizes that drove Jeff to pursue a career in real estate and join The Lease Coach in 2005.

 

Click Here to Download Your Learning Resources Guide!

Free 30-minute “Ask the Expert” telephone consultation about your unique sub-lease question.

Email JeffGrandfield@TheLeaseCoach.com and mention ‘Nuggets’ in your subject line.

Want more from Jeff?

Email JeffGrandfield@TheLeaseCoach.com

And use the Promo Code PMN2018

To receive your free copy of the “Negotiating Commercial Leases & Renewals FOR DUMMIES”

Limit to the first 15 requests!

 

#PracticeManagementNuggets, commercial lease, healthcare, landlord, lease negotiating, sub-lease clinic, sub-leasing, sublease clinic, tenant
123

Search the site

What is the elephant in the room?

The Elephant in the Room Find out here...

Privacy Policy

It is a rare privilege to work with an authentic expert who fulfills their role of consultant and coach with curiosity and respect for the specific nature of their client's unique enterprise. Jean Eaton was always prepared, sat every meeting on time, listened to an endless barrage of questions and answered every one with patience, grace, and wise counsel. The end product Information Managers Ltd provided ECHO Health was exceptional; their ongoing support will be a large measure of our success going forward. I highly recommend their services.

- Dr. Gregg Trueman-Klein, NP, ECHO Health

Register for Free On-line Privacy Breach Awareness Training!

Privacy Policy

Copyright 2022 Information Managers Ltd.

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}