At McDonald Murrmann Women's Clinic her priorities are to help the clinic transition with technology, adopt new strategies in a tight economy and garner new patients that are in need of obstetric services.

A: Having babies is a big part of our service.The economy being what it is, people aren't having babies like they were. People aren't filling their contraceptive prescriptions as much either because they can't afford it. However with annuals, people are still coming for them. Preventive care is critical. Hopefully we've done a good job of educating our patients about preventive care.

A: We consolidated our offices (into one location) because we spent a lot of time working through the problems of the physical location of charts and people. We've also extended our office hours to 6 p.m. (on select days) to allow working people to stay working. We may extend more days and even add Saturday. We're trying to capture more of the pregnant population.

A: We've somewhat loosened our financial policies for people with older balances. We're being a lot more lenient than we have been in the past just to give people a better opportunity to pay. We don't want to put an unnecessary financial burden on those who are struggling. That said, those incurring new bills, we're much more stringent about making sure things are paid up front. We're setting expectations ahead of time.

A: After we moved here, we drew a line in the sand that says you don't get to use a paper chart anymore. If you need something from a paper chart, we'll make sure it's in the electronic chart; otherwise it's not your crutch anymore. We've been converting since I got here and in the last year we've come a long way. All lab results come directly from their computer to our computer. We match them up and doctor's sign them off electronically and tell the nurses what to do electronically. The documentation is much better. The doctors, we've dragged them kicking and screaming. They find it much more time consuming, but from a compliance standpoint and lawsuit standpoint it's much better.

 

We have to make sure the doctors completely document everything they do because they know what they're thinking, but the way (the system is set up), if it's not written down, it didn't happen. 

 

Also, we participate in the e-prescribing grant. We have gotten a lot of the technology to accommodate e-prescribing.

 

Hopefully in five years, we will not have a piece of paper in the business. There will be no more paper charts and a lot more room for more physicians and patient care. 

 

A: What's unique, coming from the West, is to have the hospitals negotiate the payor contracts. It's very foreign to me to have the fox guarding the henhouse, so to speak. 

 

One of the things we have talked about is having a women's health IPA or something along those lines so we will be able to have better purchasing power and contract negotiating power to break away from the hospitals with regard to contract negotiations. It's on the horizon.

 

A: I would like for us to be the go-to for women's care in this area. I think a lot of our doctors are excellent practitioners. They have done a lot with regard to training residents, but I think we can go further and provide more education to the community at large and to expand services with more physicians.