Practical Pearls

A Handy Guide to the Best Take-Home Tips in the March 2009 Issue of Ophthalmology MANAGEMENT

Benchmarking against other ASCs of similar size and with similar patient volume is one of the best ways to develop operational efficiencies, ensure regulatory compliance and increase profitability………………Find it!

As part of the new federal stimulus legislation, practices that demonstrate "meaningful use" of electronic health records for Medicare and Medicaid patients in 2011 can earn a $15,000 incentive bonus, with lesser bonuses paid to adopters in the next 3 years. Practices that have not adopted electronic records by 2014 will face penalties………………Find it!

Many administrators hoard a practice's financial benchmarking findings, only showing them to the physicians. This is shortsighted. To get the maximum benefit of benchmarking, all parties need to be involved……Find it!

Ocular allergy is not always benign. It's important to recognize concomitant conditions. Rubbing itchy eyes, for example, may introduce bacteria to the eye, resulting in bacterial conjunctivitis or lead to chalazions………Find it!

A meta-analysis of eight randomized clinical trials examining the effects of bimatoprost, latanoprost and travoprost on IOP reduction showed that bimatoprost had the greatest efficacy. However, the incidences of hyperemia were lower for latanoprost and travoprost………………Find it!

A new ectasia rating scale can't be considered a legal go/no-go standard because it suggests "you should never perform LASIK on a young patient and we've done tens of thousands," says Dan Durrie, M.D………Find it!

For modifier 59, documentation must support a different session, different procedure or surgery, different site or organ system, separate incision or excision, separate lesion, or separate injury (or area of injury in extensive injuries) not ordinarily encountered or performed on the same day by the same individual……………………………Find it!

One of the best investments a young ophthalmologist can make is a good pair of loupes………………………Find it!

Creating a hearing center is a complementary service that essentially serves the same senior demographic that already makes up a significant percentage of your practice……………………Find it!

New guidelines prohibit drug sales reps from providing promotional items, but educational items worth $100 or less that cannot be used outside the professional medical arena are allowed on an occasional basis……Find it!

Implementing a Total Quality Management program is a good way to involve the entire ASC staff in process improvement…………………Find it!

In addition to making cataract surgeries more time and cost efficient, custom surgical packs also make sense from an environmental standpoint, by creating significantly less waste…………………………Find it!

Because laser technologies come and go, a refractive surgery practice's marketing strategy must remain consistent. Do not market your vendor's name, laser or type of flap creation — market your surgeons……Find it!

Smaller practices (1-10 physicians) will be offered technical and financial support for electronic health records adoption as part of the new federal stimulus legislation……………………………Find it!

The tendency among most corneal specialists who have studied ectasia in detail is to consider people with naturally occurring keratoconus and those with post-LASIK ectasia to be virtually indistinguishable…………Find it!

Perhaps the most effective means of finding allergy patients is by establishing solid relationships with local GPs, ENT specialists and allergists, who are often the first to see patients with allergic conjunctivitis………Find it!

One way to create a hearing center is to partner with a specialized company that provides an audiologist, equipment and hearing aids…………Find it!

Implantation of the Ex-Press miniature drainage device beneath a partial-thickness scleral flap may provide resistance to aqueous outflow and may minimize the risk of conjunctival erosion……………Find it!

In practices with multiple surgeons, prepackaged surgical kits can be customized to each doctor. But to really achieve OR and cost efficiency, they've got to sit down and come to an agreement on one set of items……Find it!

Last year, ketotifen became available for OTC use, making it the first antihistamine/mast cell stabilizer OTC product. This previously prescription-only product has revolutionized the OTC market and raised questions as to whether prescription medications are worth their price……………Find it!

Patients endorse hearing centers in ophthalmology practices because they already have a basic trust of their eye doctor………………Find it!

Track refractive surgery outcomes and display them throughout your practice. Share the data with patients to show them exactly how many surgeries the practice has done on patients with the same prescription………Find it!

Cyclosporine 0.05% treatment for moderate to severe dry eye confers a 7.1% gain in quality of life for a typical patient — a figure comparable to the benefit attributed to anti-hypertensive therapy……………Find it!

Practice benchmarking is one way to show the staff what is expected of them and how well they are meeting the practice's goals…………Find it!