First Things First (Part 2)

In our last post we outlined the benefits available for the physician who embraces quality-focused care. The question we left you with was, “What can I do right now to prepare my practice for engagement of these new CQI programs?” I think the answer is simple: you need to define your goals first, before you put in practice a plan to reach them.

Setting Realistic Goals

Now that you’ve decided that you want to lead the quality improvement charge, you should set some goals. Some of the goals should be for the physician, some for the staff, and some for the office as a team:

Physician Goals

1. Support the quality improvement work in the office. Don’t be the grumpy doctor who won’t change his or her ways. I’m a grumpy doctor sometimes too, so I can say that.
2. Empower your staff to actively participate in improving outcomes. Give them marching orders and cut them loose! They will appreciate the responsibility and believe in the work.
3. Use technology at the point-of-care at every patient encounter to identify gaps in care and act on them. Use the tools available to you to cure, heal, and stamp out disease.

Staff Goals

1. Support the quality improvement work in the office. Don’t be the grumpy staff member who won’t change his or her ways.
2. Use technology at the point-of-care at every patient encounter to identify gaps in care and act on them.

Office Goals

1. Meet all Pay for Performance benchmarks this year. Leave no money on the table.
2. Obtain PCMH certification for your office. Increase reimbursement with this certification.
3. Improve your rankings on any payer Websites. Go from 3 apples to 5 apples!
4. Participate with the PQRS program. Leverage the data you have. Don’t let the government keep your money!
5. Increase performance on various preventive care and chronic disease management outcomes by X% each quarter. Can you do better than your office partners? Then do it!
6. Meet Meaningful Use requirements. If you are going to get serious about this, then go get your reward from the government.

These are just some ideas to get you started. Whatever goals you choose, make sure they are meaningful, achievable, and measureable.

In the next post in this series, we’ll roll up our sleeves a little further and talk about Collaborating and Sharing Data.