'Reform U' Schools Physicians' Staff

Healthcare is a complicated business, and it won't get any simpler with the advent of sweeping federal healthcare reforms that include complicated new standards for care, quality and reimbursement.

And, however much electronic medical records may improve care and efficiency, there is a steep learning curve for these complex systems. Most of these adjustments are done on the job, under duress, while dealing with anxious patients, creating no small amount of stress for healthcare workers. Physicians' staff at off-site offices are particularly vulnerable to these stresses because they perceive that they don't enjoy the same support or access to help that is available for staff inside hospital walls.

With that in mind Broward General Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale, FL, created "Broward General University."  The free program of eight, once-a-month, midday classes for up to 40 office managers of affiliated physicians at the hospital was started last year and designed to enhance their knowledge of healthcare reforms and provide a variety of strategies for other daily issues.

Maybe they should call it Reform U.

"We wanted to have a program to reach out to our physicians' office staff," says Anthea Greaves, Physician Services and Medical Staff Coordinator at North Broward Hospital District. "The healthcare reforms and the medical records becoming electronic, those are some huge changes happening in the healthcare industry that are going to impact physician practices We wanted to give back to our physicians on staff by allowing their office managers and staff to be trained on various issues, whether it be claims and collections or learning how to motivate staff."

Topics for the 2011 Physician Office Staff Education Series, which runs from March through October, include managing stress in the office, difficult patients, patient access, insurance verification, hospital scheduling, claims and collections, motivating staff, marketing and advertising, negotiating contracts with insurance carriers, and case management.

There are also hands-on training and networking opportunities, and a chance to speak with guest instructors. "We are offering practices strategies on how to deal with claims and collections, negotiating contracts with different insurance carriers," Greaves says.

"We did a survey of the last participants of the first series and one of the popular topics that came up was stress and difficult patients, along with patient access and marketing ideas for the practice," she says. "The industry has changed where physicians are left on their own in a private practice where they don't necessarily have the tools to market the practice and bring in the business."

This is a great idea, and a remarkable and cost-effective way to promote engagement with physicians and their staff. With so much going on inside the hospital walls, it would be easy to forget about the critical role that physicians' office managers and staff play in coordinating care. Courses such as these not only provide practical solutions-based training on specific issues, they also provide a valuable outlet for office managers to build professional relationships and socialize with colleagues. Perhaps most importantly, these classes send a strong message that BGMC values its physician partners and their staff.