Take Charge of Your Medical Practice before Someone Else Does It for You or The IMS

Take Charge of Your Medical Practice . . . before Someone Else Does It for You: Practical Practice Management for the Managed Care Market

Author: Neil Baum

For a physician to succeed in The New World of health care delivery he or she needs to focus on four key areas of medical practice: his patients; his office; his business relationship with managed care plans, hospitals and other physicians; and his marketing plan. Each of these areas is a pillar of effective practice, the importance of which will not be diminished or changed regardless of the direction of future health care reform.

Robert E. Rakel

This book provides advice to new practices (physicians and staff) on how to build or expand a practice. Its six parts address ways to understand and attract patients; how to run an efficient office; working effectively with managed care plans; marketing the medical practice; getting favorable media attention; and balancing one's personal and professional life. There is no preface and the purpose is not clearly stated in the introduction, but it appears the book is intended to help physicians and staff run an efficient office that will attract and retain patients. The audience would include all physicians in their final years of residency and those just starting out in practice. Physicians already in practice and interested in expanding or building greater patient loyalty could also benefit. The illustrations and tables are appropriate and the number is about right. There are too few references, but they are current. The table of contents is well done, but the index is too superficial. Unique features include the chapters on the proper use of humor in the practice, creating a patient-friendly office, and creating a practice newsletter and videotape. The topic of practice development and office management is addressed somewhat uniquely, covering areas not present in other texts. Overall, however, the coverage is superficial in areas and reflects the background of the author, who is a urologist. The book will be of greatest interest to the physician who is just starting or has recently started a practice. The section on attracting and communicating with patients may be the most useful because many residents do not learn this during their training. The book will be of limited valueto libraries as a reference, but bookstores may do well by it.

Doody Review Services

Reviewer: Robert E. Rakel, MD (Baylor College of Medicine)
Description: This book provides advice to new practices (physicians and staff) on how to build or expand a practice. Its six parts address ways to understand and attract patients; how to run an efficient office; working effectively with managed care plans; marketing the medical practice; getting favorable media attention; and balancing one's personal and professional life.
Purpose: There is no preface and the purpose is not clearly stated in the introduction, but it appears the book is intended to help physicians and staff run an efficient office that will attract and retain patients.
Audience: The audience would include all physicians in their final years of residency and those just starting out in practice. Physicians already in practice and interested in expanding or building greater patient loyalty could also benefit.
Features: The illustrations and tables are appropriate and the number is about right. There are too few references, but they are current. The table of contents is well done, but the index is too superficial. Unique features include the chapters on the proper use of humor in the practice, creating a patient-friendly office, and creating a practice newsletter and videotape.
Assessment: The topic of practice development and office management is addressed somewhat uniquely, covering areas not present in other texts. Overall, however, the coverage is superficial in areas and reflects the background of the author, who is a urologist. The book will be of greatest interest to the physician who is just starting or has recently started a practice. The section on attracting and communicating with patients may be the most useful because many residents do not learn this during their training. The book will be of limited value to libraries as a reference, but bookstores may do well by it.

Rating

3 Stars from Doody

Table of Contents:

	Acknowledgments
	Introduction - Why I Wrote This Book
Ch. 1	Walking in the Shoes of Your Patients	3
Ch. 2	The Pot of Gold at the End of the Rainbow Is As Close As Your Patients	11
Ch. 3	Coming Attractions: Encouraging New Patients to Your Practice	23
Ch. 4	The Care and Feeding of Champions	35
Ch. 5	All's Fair at the Fair	39
Ch. 6	Positive Experiences Mean Plenty of Patients	43
Ch. 7	Exceed Patient Expectations	53
Ch. 8	Survey Your Patients	63
Ch. 9	Develop Effective Communication Skills	71
Ch. 10	Create a Mission Statement	87
Ch. 11	Hire the Dream Team	93
Ch. 12	Training New Employees	105
Ch. 13	The Power of Empowerment	113
Ch. 14	Office Manuals Are Mandatory	119
Ch. 15	For Positive Results, Use Positive Reinforcement	125
Ch. 16	Periodic Performance Reviews	135
Ch. 17	You Get What You Pay For	147
Ch. 18	Measure and Improve Quality: It's Not a State of Mind	153
Ch. 19	Putting Mirth into Medicine	161
Ch. 20	Advice on Advisors	173
Ch. 21	Reduce Overhead	181
Ch. 22	Create a Patient-Friendly Office	191
Ch. 23	On Time Means on the Ball	199
Ch. 24	Build a Brochure That Builds Business	207
Ch. 25	Use Computer Power To Boost Your Practice	215
Ch. 26	Team Up with Physician Extenders To Increase Your Office Efficiency	221
Ch. 27	Give Your Practice a Checkup	227
Ch. 28	Putting "Manage" into Managed Care	237
Ch. 29	Don't Get Caught in the "Cap Trap"	243
Ch. 30	Act as a Patient Advocate	257
Ch. 31	Keep Your Gatekeeper Content	263
Ch. 32	How To Make Your Practice Attractive to Managed Care Plans	271
Ch. 33	Prepare for Success in Managed Care	287
Ch. 34	The Power of Point of Service	295
Ch. 35	Get a Good Grade on Your Report Card	303
Ch. 36	Managed Care Contracting	313
Ch. 37	Why Marketing Is a Necessity	329
Ch. 38	Market Shares and Market Niches	331
Ch. 39	Create a Medical Practice Marketing Plan	339
Ch. 40	Practice Newsletters: How To Make Them Work	349
Ch. 41	Use Bill Stuffers To Market Your Practice	357
Ch. 42	How To Get a Marketing Booster Shot from Your Medical Manufacturing and Pharmaceutical Companies	363
Ch. 43	Lights, Camera, Action! Creating Videotapes To Market Your Practice	367
Ch. 44	Marketing in the Era of Managed Care	375
Ch. 45	Ten Marketing Commandments	385
Ch. 46	Are You Ready for Prime Time?	389
Ch. 47	Write a News Release That Gets Results	393
Ch. 48	Media Manners That Make a Difference	397
Ch. 49	Managing a Media Crisis	401
Ch. 50	Walking the Tightrope	407
	Index	413

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The IMS: IP Multimedia Concepts and Services

Author: Aki Niemi

The IMS: IP Multimedia Concepts and Services in the Mobile Domain, Second Edition, builds on the success of the previous best-selling edition, providing comprehensive coverage of IMS –  its concepts, architecture, protocols and functionalities with a wealth of new and updated material.

Mobile telephony with the current technology has been hugely successful and demonstrates the immense value of communicating with peers while being mobile, and with increasingly available smarter multimedia terminals, the communication experience will be something more than just exchanging voice. These multimedia terminals need IP multimedia networks. Hence the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) has developed a standard for SIP-based IP multimedia service machinery known as ‘The IMS’ (IP Multimedia Subsystem). This completely up-to-date and informative guide explains everything you need to know about it...

Key features of the Second Edition include:

• Two new chapters on push-to-talk over cellular and group management.

• Additional new material includes: fixed and mobile convergence, interworking between IPv4 and IPv6 in the IMS, combined circuit-switched and IMS services (combinational services), IMS security and alternative session establishment procedures.

• More coverage of the benefits of IMS, particularly with regard to its role in fixed-mobile convergence.

• Special emphasis on services, featuring more detailed descriptions of presence, messaging, group management and push-to-talk over cellular (conferencing).

• Updates on Third GenerationPartnership Project Agreement (3GPP) Release 6 level.

• New examples and case studies, including a variety of scenarios, how to handle multiple terminals and end-user preferences.

Written in a manner that allows readers to choose the level of knowledge and understanding they need to gain about the IMS, this volume will have instant appeal to a wide ranging audience including marketing managers, research and development engineers, network engineers, developes, test engineers and university students.