Action Steps
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Use full-service healthcare consulting firms

Instead of going through a lot of trial and error and spending time and valuable resources setting up your practice, bring in a healthcare consulting firm to get you started off on the right foot. Senior healthcare consultants can do everything from helping you find funding and the right building location, to signing up vendors and setting up your furnishings.

I recommend: Work with Vantage Clinical Solutions, specialists in start-ups and small business models. Check out their Healthcare entrepreneur blog to see how they communicate with clients and other business owners. You can work with Practice Remedy Consultants in whatever capacity fits, from the helping you open the doors to being available for consulting services.

Choose medical consultant companies for recruiting

Work with niche agencies to monitor your hiring practices and remove the hiring burden off your managers. Consider hiring a healthcare consulting company for a focused approach to your business to bring in new line employees, managers and executives. Nurse staffing agencies are particularly proficient in finding gifted medical personnel.

I recommend: AMN Healthcare is prepared to fill all the posts in your office. They will take care of all the details and send you qualified prospects to interview. The Hospital Connection Network uses more than 300 websites to recruit qualified candidates for every position from admin to staff nurses and assistants.

Upgrade your IT with medical consulting firms

You should consider working with healthcare consultants that bring a vast knowledge of technology to remain competitive. There are so many advancements in healthcare and IT business programs that you need to investigate all the alternatives to remain competitive.

I recommend: Through seminars, personal consulting and staff training, GE Healthcare can bring your office up to date with the latest IT products to make your practice more efficient. Work with Hospital Tech Solutions to upgrade your technology one piece at a time.

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  When you are working with healthcare consultants, make sure that they have a way to offer measurable results on a regular basis so they can show you savings or increased efficiency.

1. An employee has filed a workers' compensation claim against your business, regardless of whether you dispute the validity of the claim.
2. A current or former employee is seeking disability benefits under your business' disability insurance plan.
3. Your small business needs expert witness services in medical malpractice, HMO peer review or other healthcare business consulting issues.

1. Seek the services of only properly credentialed healthcare consultants.
2. Ask for and then check at least three references of any healthcare consulting firms with which you are considering contracting.
3. Verify that any healthcare consulting firms you interview carry adequate malpractice insurance on their IME professionals.

Action Steps
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Determine if hiring IME medical consultant companies is worth it

If you are requesting an IME to dispute a workers compensation, disability or other claim by an employee, weigh the costs of litigating the claim against the cost of settling.

I recommend: The National Council on Compensation Insurance, Inc offers services and tools on workers' compensation and employee injury data and statistics. Enforcement statistics and litigation for employment discrimination are available through the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

Decide if you need to hire an external healthcare consulting company

If your business is large enough and you have the budget to contract with a healthcare consulting firm to facilitate and meet your IME needs, there are numerous medical consulting firms that specialize in healthcare and medical consulting. For those in the insurance sales business, contracting with a medical consulting firm is more efficient than arranging exams on a case-by-case basis.

I recommend: The Medical Consultants Network provides IME services nationwide for employers, insurers and others. Juris Solutions, Inc., American Medical Forensic Specialists, Inc. and the Tasa Group are just a few of the national medical and healthcare consulting companies that provide IMEs and related services.

Get information from healthcare specialists about credentialed IME practitioners online

A number of medical associations and professional healthcare organizations provide online healthcare consultants listings that cover IME practitioners. You can find specific practitioners and general credentialing information.

I recommend: The American Board of Independent Medical Examiners (ABIME) provides a searchable database of ABIME certified physicians. Multi-specialty medical professionals and specialist healthcare consulting companies belong to the American Academy of Disability Evaluating Physicians (AADEP) and the National Association of Disability Examiners (NADE) supports the art and science of disability evaluation. The Seak National Directory of IMEs offers a large database of IME providers, both physicians and other healthcare consultants.

Know your disability and workers' compensation laws

Each state has different disability and workers compensation rules and regulations. It's imperative that an employer is educated about these legalities.

I recommend: A nationwide comprehensive resource and information center for employers is available through the National Workers' Compensation Web site. Questions and answers about the federal Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) will help you to understand and comply with ADA law.

Action Steps
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Investigate medical consulting firms

Ask your peers about their experiences with healthcare consulting companies. Check out organizations that provide information about healthcare management consulting to understand what they can do for you. Healthcare specialists can help to bring your company greater profitability once you're familiar with the basics of their services.

I recommend: The American Association of Healthcare Consultants can help you find a qualified healthcare consulting firm as well as present options to get proposals from various agencies. The Consultants Consortium provides information so that you can learn about the industry and make educational choices when you are just starting out in business and not familiar with all the aspects of healthcare consulting.

Be specific with medical consulting firms

While you may have a thriving practice that you feel runs very efficiently, you may have a need to find great employees without taking up a lot of your time. Perhaps you are interested in new medical equipment but don't have the time to investigate all the possibilities. Be clear in your needs and look for healthcare consultants that will fill only those needs.

I recommend: Look to a large, experienced staffing firm such as Premier Healthcare Solutions to work with you and find the right level and quality of staffing you need. If you have compliance questions or billing issues, consider a consultant whose basic work covers those areas such as Decision Health.

Try a healthcare consulting company and its products

A healthcare consulting firm can help you to bring in a broader scope of available technology that can make your patient, billing and diagnosis efforts run more efficiently. Look for a healthcare IT provider that will let you try their programs before you make any commitments.

I recommend: Send for the free demos provided by EMR Experts to try their electronic medical records and practice management software products. Medical Software Tools has a number of products that you can try before you buy and work with their consultants to find the best products as you go through the trials.

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  While you are learning the healthcare consultants basics, try not to be swayed by the persuasive salespeople who will try to sell you an array of services that you may not need, nor be ready for. Instead, stick with your original plan and get to know the medical consultant companies slowly, piece by piece.

Guide to Health-Care Consultants Key Terms

Service an evolving clientele with health-care consultants key terms

By R.N. Dolgener, Special Education Teacher

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Total Quality Management, or TQM

Although the Total Quality Management theory of W. Edwards Deming is applicable in many industries, it has become a popular tool in health-care quality improvement and consulting. Also called TQM, the theory requires that a health-care organization strive for continuous improvement of every business facet -- including customer service, revenue cycle management and human resources - through teamwork, strategic planning, leadership, communication and recognition.

I recommend: Read more about Deming's 14 points defining TQM at Management for the Rest of Us.

Medical informatics

Medical informatics, also known as health-care informatics or biomedical informatics, is an interdisciplinary field that combines emerging information technology with medical data for the more efficient and effective use of health-care information. Through medical informatics, statistical science plays an integral role in management decision-making support using biostatistics and engineering.

I recommend: Get more information at the American Medical Informatics Association and the Oregon Health and Science University.

Patient satisfaction

Patient satisfaction is the newest buzzword in health-care quality improvement. It's a TQM tool most often measured through patient satisfaction surveys and used to improve the delivery of patient services in all areas.

I recommend: See what the American Academy of Family Physicians has to say about the usefulness of patient satisfaction surveys as a TQM tool.

Electronic medical record, or EMR

As modern businesses move toward a paperless business model, health care is no exception, moving from paper-heavy medical records to electronic medical records (EMR). In the consulting world, the move to an EMR-based health system requires help from information technology, process improvement and change management experts.

I recommend: Explore the legal and technical ramifications of switching from paper to electronic medical records at the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society.

Core measures

The Joint Commission has set forth a set of National Quality Measures, or core measures, by which hospitals must organize quality improvement efforts to include performance improvement teams, data analysis and reporting and physician pay for performance programs. The core measures target specific hospital practices that need improvement to reduce or eliminate morbidity and mortality that is attributable to poor or outdated standards of care.

I recommend: Read more about specific core measures at The Joint Commission.

Computerized physician order entry, or CPOE

Computerized physician order entry, or CPOE, is a safety initiative designed to eliminate medication errors by involving the physician directly in the medication prescribing process. When a physician orders a medication change or a new prescription for a patient, instead of writing the order by hand or dictating the order for another health-care professional to write on the patient's paper chart, CPOE requires that the physician enter the medication information into the electronic medical record to ensure proper dosing instructions.

I recommend: Learn more about CPOE from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.