Strategic planning: how medical practices can succeed in a post-healthcare-reform world.

This article addresses the recent trend of physicians being pressured to sell to hospitals in order to stay in practice. The author utilizes his experience in the healthcare industry to identify causes of this trend and ways in which physician groups can avoid finding themselves in these situations. The author uses real data from an existing medical practice to support his ideas and demonstrate how implementing change now will be beneficial for the success of this medical practice in the future. Objective practice evaluation and the execution of an efficient strategic plan are cited as the most important factors contributing to the financial solvency of medical practices in the current and future healthcare environment.

eMedOffice: a web-based collaborative serious game for teaching optimal design of a medical practice.

BACKGROUND: Preparing medical students for the takeover or the start-up of a medical practice is an important challenge in Germany today. Therefore, this paper presents a computer-aided serious game (eMedOffice) developed and currently in use at the RWTH Aachen University Medical School. The game is part of the attempt to teach medical students the organizational and conceptual basics of the medical practice of a general practitioner in a problem-based learning environment. This paper introduces methods and concepts used to develop the serious game and describes the results of an evaluation of the game's application in curricular courses at the Medical School. RESULTS: Results of the conducted evaluation gave evidence of a positive learning effect of the serious game. Educational supervisors observed strong collaboration among the players inspired by the competitive gaming aspects. In addition, an increase in willingness to learn and the exploration of new self-invented ideas were observed and valuable proposals for further prospective enhancements were elicited. A statistical analysis of the results of an evaluation provided a clear indication of the positive learning effect of the game. A usability questionnaire survey revealed a very good overall score of 4.07 (5=best, 1=worst). CONCLUSIONS: We consider web-based, collaborative serious games to be a promising means of improving medical education. The insights gained by the implementation of eMedOffice will promote the future development of more effective serious games for integration into curricular courses of the RWTH Aachen University Medical School.

Are your physician-integration strategies sustainable?

Before embarking on a physician-integration strategy, hospitals and health systems should perform a detailed analysis of the following four critical areas to ensure that the strategy is competitive and sustainable: Strategic objectives; Financial resources; Requisite experience and functional capabilities; Organizational structure, culture, and commitment.

Valuing and selling a practice.

Surgeons, as they contemplate retirement, wrongly believe that their practices do not have financial value. In fact, a well-organized efficiently functioning office with an emphasis on excellent service in combination with a constant stream of patients make it financially ideal for the new surgeon. Being able to assume such a practice can be a very smart financial decision. The practice's worth can be determined by a careful analysis of the practice financials and an evaluation of the functioning of the office and employees. Purchasing such a practice can be, economically, a very smart move by a new surgeon. Payments are made over time at a rate that allows the surgeon to make a good living, leaving him with real equity once the payments are complete. The departing surgeon, who had spent years building this successful practice, gets some of this value back in the form of an income stream to supplement his retirement. This process should be considered in virtually every case. Do not just "close the door."