A new vision for effective practice management
Practical tips and pearls of wisdom.
S015 – Practice Management: Vision, Execution, and Optimization
Friday, March 25 | 1 – 4 p.m.
Room 103
Charting a course for the future of your practice takes vision. Although dermatologists may have the clinical expertise to excel in the specialty, sharpening your business skills is an important counterpart for advancing your practice.
Tom Helm, MD, FAAD, and a panel of experts including Jeffrey Miller, MD, FAAD, Robert Kalb, MD, FAAD, Alexandra Flamm, MD, MPH, FAAD, Mollie A. MacCormack, MD, FAAD, Melissa Piliang, MD, FAAD, and Alexa Boer Kimball, MD, MPH, FAAD, will dissect the tasks at hand, helping attendees formulate a vision for their practice, outline actions to implement their vision, and identify strategies for adjusting to a changing health care environment. Panelists, including Dr. Helm, will share their own approaches.
“Most dermatologists have a vision for their practice, but most do not allocate time to formulate specific actionable goals and steps for implementation,” Dr. Helm said. “Reacting to stressors and pressing problems often takes time and resources away from long-term planning, relationship building, and focusing on personal growth.”
When formulating a practice management plan, Dr. Helm encourages dermatologists to outline steps to implement their vision and identify strategies for adjusting to a changing health care environment. Dr. Helm’s steps include:
- Consider your priorities, values, and strengths, and solicit feedback from colleagues.
- Identify personal and professional goals that will naturally lead to a plan.
- Take time to read and think.
- Understand “what is gained and what is lost” with your decisions to establish realistic goals that align with your values.
- Take an “inward journey”of leadership to explore your authentic self.
- Don't just do what everyone else in dermatology is doing.
- Take time to read and think. Brene Brown, Wiley Souba Jr., MD, ScD, MBA, and others have published many good resources on leadership.
- Participate in the Academy’s practice management programing.
“These Academy opportunities have provided me with valuable perspectives and renewed my will to actively make changes in my practice,” Dr. Helm said. “The Academy’s practice management offerings, courses, and Leadership Institute, as well as your network of colleagues can all be important resources for developing a plan that fits for you.”
During this afternoon’s comprehensive session, panelists will delve into several practice management sub-topics, including:
- Creating a culture of excellence
- Translating your vision into practice
- Building important relationships: Dermpath and the rest of your referral team
- Safety, speed, and satisfaction: Fine-tuning your procedural practice
- Coding, MACRA, MIPS, and more
- Navigating networks and organizational culture while staying at your “True North”
Panelists from S015 – Practice Management Vision, Execution, and Optimization will share their own pearls this afternoon. Here’s a glimpse at what some will offer:
Brian Green, MD, FAAD
- What advice can you offer to help dermatologists formulate a vision plan for their practice and outline action steps to implement it?
“Telemedicine will look different in everyone's practice. Some have a system to do it embedded into their EMRs and others will use a third party app. The best thing you can do is figure out how to work it into your workflow in a way to make it convenient for both patients and providers. Sit down with everyone involved from the front desk on back and figure out what makes sense for your team. It takes the whole team to make this work, so getting everyone involved from the start will help make this a success.” – Brian Green, MD, FAAD
Alexa Boer Kimball, MD, MPH, FAAD- What can dermatologists do to implement their vision?
“Visions are generally aspirational and inspirational. Missions confirm and embrace core values. It's sometimes helpful to identify your mission first as it will anchor your vision.” – Alexa Boer Kimball, MD, MPH, FAAD
Alexandra Flamm, MD, FAAD- What advice can you offer to help dermatologists formulate a vision plan for their practice? Can you outline action steps to implement your vision?
“Dermatopathology plays an important role in the practice of dermatology. Understanding demographic and practice trends in dermatopathology, and the impact insurer policies and legislative changes have on the practice of dermatopathology, is vital in order to effectively integrate high quality dermatopathology into a practice. There are various models that exemplify this effective integration. It is important to understand their strengths and drawbacks in order to select which works best for a practice.” – Alexandra Flamm, MD, FAAD
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