Why do medical practices reach out to their patients? The answer seems obvious — because patients who are engaged in their own care tend to be healthier, which makes the job of the physician easier and helps control costs.

But if the answer is so obvious, why don’t more practices have effective Patient Engagement?

Many physicians and their staffs pride themselves on being able to do lots of different tasks. Their intentions are excellent. Doctors, after all, are in the business of helping patients. So, helping as many as possible in the shortest amount of time can’t be a bad thing, right?

Champaign is known as the hub of Illinois’ Silicon Prairie, with many technology and healthcare companies. Christie Clinic, founded in 1929, is a vital and growing part of the region’s economy. We now feature more than 180 providers at 22 clinics in east-central Illinois.

What happens when primary care practices don’t provide patients with the service they demand, including flexible hours? Someone else does.

An outsider might assume that New York City youth are universally savvy and self-reliant, capable of finding their way in what is, after all, one of the world’s largest and most diverse cities, a place that is brash, bold, and seemingly bursting with confidence.

But the reality is that youth everywhere face many of the same problems, have many of the same questions, and struggle with many of the same issues. Those issues range from dealing with the physical and emotional changes that come with puberty to questions of identity, self-confidence, and how to navigate the world.

Let’s Talk about Excellence!

At Prime Care Family Practice of Prince George, Virginia, things were going well. Having worked with eClinicalWorks since 2012, the practice had an excellent healthcare IT partner. Providers were seeing 600 patients each week. The phones were busy.

But early in 2016, Dr. Amar Shah recognized a serious deficiency in his Patient Engagement strategy: It was all about the telephone.

Telephones are great, but if they are the primary or sole method patients use to reach their providers, access to healthcare can suffer, along with patient satisfaction.

When it comes to making quality healthcare available to any community, what’s the first challenge? Access.

After all, the best medical services in the world are of no value unless patients can make use of them. And even when a doctor/patient relationship has been established, the doctors and patients sometimes need help staying in touch and making best use of available resources.

That’s where a tool such as Patient Portal can make a critical difference.

In October 2016, Frontiers in Psychiatry published an online review of studies regarding cellphone addiction, some of which suggest that many people today might be a bit over-attached to those gadgets that seem to take care of more and more of our daily tasks.

Defying a trend

If you happen to be in the Salt Lake City area and visit any of the 18 locations run by Granger Medical Clinic, you’ll see a lot that looks familiar, including a busy front office and the range of primary and specialty services you’d expect from any growing medical facility.

Look more closely, and you’ll see an organization that’s just a bit different in key ways.

While more and more U.S. doctors are giving up owning their own practices, and joining larger, hospital-owned networks, Granger continues to proudly assert its independence.

If there is such a thing as the perfect illustration of how a medical practice should adopt Electronic Health Records, it may be Grove Medical Associates in Auburn, Massachusetts. Over the last 12 years, from their Go-Live with eClinicalWorks to meeting the challenges of value-based medicine, the physicians and staff at Grove have demonstrated excellence and innovation that are models for the industry.

Patient Portal and a Touch of Standard Deviation

Enjoying the Practice of Medicine Again

Doctors become doctors for lots of reasons, mostly having to do with helping others remain healthy, overcome illness, and live fuller, more meaningful lives. But along the way a lot can happen. Your practice grows larger and more complex. Financial headaches abound. Insurance rules change. Government mandates are added.

Do you live in a busy urban area? Do you work in healthcare? Do you multitask?

If you said yes to the first two, we can guarantee you said yes to the third.

Riverdale Family Practice (RFP) knows firsthand what busy is. Marking their 30th year in the Kingsbridge/Riverdale neighborhood of the Bronx, New York, RFP serves more than 35,000 people — young and old, rich and poor, from every corner of their neighborhood — which in the Bronx means from every corner of the globe.

Take a close look at the health profile of the state of Arkansas, and by almost any measure there’s cause for concern, with one of the nation’s highest rates of obesity and related conditions, including diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease.

Most healthcare providers today don’t lack technology. The real challenge is realizing the full potential of the EHR, smartphones, tablets, trackers and apps. That means developing stronger communication skills, and making sure all providers and staff are trained to take advantage of available technologies.

As John Lynn from healthcarescene.com explains in our two-part podcast, communication and training are essential to better medicine.