Happy New Year! Welcome 2015. I hope it is a wonderful year for you all.
2014 was a huge year for Train IT Medical. Another wonderful year of travelling this beautiful country meeting the most amazing, inspirational people. Those who know me well know I like my social media. The only problem is I have to stop myself – stop myself from constantly gushing “I just met the most amazing doctor (or Practice Manager, Nurse, Social Worker etc)”. Being inspired by you, my clients, is a constant theme and I consider myself extremely fortunate to work with such awe-inspiring people who dedicate their lives to looking after others.
What was achieved in 2014?
2014 – 50 flights, countless kilometres, from the busiest cities to the most remote outback towns – the only states I didn’t visit were NT and Tasmania. 2014 saw a focus on teaching ‘data cleansing’ and how to input ‘quality’ clinical data to benefit both patients and clinicians. Accreditation, medico-legal risk management and efficient, cost-saving electronic transmission of clinical information remain the driving factors for change.
Having spent a lot of the year helping practices with their business systems, extracting and analysing data I thought I’d do a little Train IT Medical data analysis and reflect on 2014 for a moment.
2014 – Training Delivered
- 2014 saw a 100% increase from 2013 in formal Event/Conference presentations with a total of 57 for the year.
- Requests for individual Online Training increased significantly in 2014.
- Average number of practices attending each Webinar = 5
- Average number of staff attending Webinars = 25
The Top 5 most popular topics of 2014 requested & delivered were:
- Database Cleansing and saving time entering Clinical Data
- Recalls, Reminders & Risk Management
- Chronic Disease Management
- Medicare Billing and streamlining Practice Management systems
- eHealth, the PCEHR & Secure Messaging
This made a change as in 2013 it was:
- eHealth & the PCEHR
- eHealth & the PCEHR
- eHealth & the PCEHR
- eHealth & the PCEHR
- eHealth & the PCEHR.
Okay, I exaggerate but I did so much PCEHR training with doctors I even gave myself the title of ‘eHealth Queen’ and to this day I still maintain that I have heard every eHealth opinion. It was with slight relief then that the focus turned to database cleansing. Those of us who spend their days working in a large number of medical practices across Australia know that there is considerable work to be done before many will be PCEHR ready (even when all the other arguments are sorted) and it is absolutely vital that the information we upload be ‘clean’ aka correct. One GP this year told me ‘We’re too busy to clean up our patients’ lists of current medications. The hospital will know the patient can’t possibly be on all those medications so it won’t matter if we upload like that’. So it was with a bit of relief I felt that we could spend time focussing on database cleansing (whilst the PCEHR rollout plan was being revised) and I am thrilled to report real progress both with collecting data in computerised health records and the quality of that data collection.
I have a saying “We can use any software badly, we may as well use them well so they help us”. All other medical software tasks are simplified if the patient Health Summary is ‘clean’ ie. accurate. I believe having ‘clean’ data will lead, by natural progression, to the point where we will easily upload and ‘share’ patient information. I remain personally a big fan of eHealth, working in hundreds of practices and seeing many ‘adverse outcomes’ from incorrect information/missing information, not to mention the time and cost saving benefits for practices. I believe 2015 will see an increase in patient involvement and the desire to share in their health information management.
What’s in store for 2015?
2015 for Train IT Medical will continue to focus on ‘clinical governance’, maximising efficiencies in medical practices by improving practice processes and we will see a focus on Secure Messaging Delivery in order to comply with the Australian Privacy and Confidentiality Principles as well as save time & money and just generally improve communication efficiency.
I am expanding the size of my team and introducing more eLearning options as, having delivered Webinars across Australia all year, I am acutely aware of the training needs that exist, the challenges faced in rural and remote Australia, and want to offer a full range of training choices.
Personally I aim to increase my Practice Management consulting as, having worked as a Practice Manager myself for many years and over the past 8 years as a Consultant Practice Manager regularly for 5 practices, I see the challenges and enormous changes that the next few years will bring for practices and I would like to offer my support for Practice teams with managing these changes. Having had the opportunities to work with the most successful medical practices in Australia, and having lived the life of a Practice Manager (there is truly no other job quite like it), I find I am in a unique position to help. Also, I get quite attached to the wonderful practice staff I train and enjoy a continuing relationship. So this year I give myself the new title of ‘The Practice Support Team’s Support Team’ and I am really looking forward to this new year and helping in any way I can.
With happy new year wishes,
Katrina