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I wanted to post this fun gadget that allows you to peruse our library of key terms that we have used. Find one you like and just click on it to read more!

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Innovative Healthcare reform

Solving workplace healthcare issues

Below is a video from ABC world news that discusses the reforms set in motion by Safeway CEO Steve Burd. THe video discusses his healthcare reforms from inside his own company.

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Choosing a Surgical Weight Loss Program

weight-loss surgery program

weight-loss surgery program

Choosing a Surgical Weight Loss Program

One of the most frustrating components of your weight loss journey will be finding the right doctor with the right weight loss program that will fit your personal needs. Think about this for a moment. You’re taking a huge step toward personal life change. To be successful, it is necessary that you are in control and you have all the support, educational resources and coaching available to achieve and sustain your weight loss goals: yes, those goals you have failed to accomplish for many year, perhaps a life time.

One of the leading causes of unsuccessful surgical weight-loss surgery is the lack of program support “after the surgery.” You can blame the surgeon, he or she did they part. You only have yourself. You are responsible for your health care; you are responsible for selecting your surgical provider; you are responsible to look for the right program and you have choices. Do not take these choices lightly.

One of the most important choices you’ll make on your weight loss journey is selecting a doctor (or team of doctors) to be your partner on your health journey. Remember that you are looking for a weight healer – a doctor with both technical and human qualities.

Identifying a doctor is not rocket science but choosing the right doctor is more challenging. Our insurance companies point us in the direction of doctors daily; billboards promote their faces; radios speak their names, and news papers promote their practices. But finding that special doctor who becomes your weight loss health partner, your weight loss coach, that is supported with a team of professionals requires investing time and energy and a willingness to trust your feelings as much as you trust their credentials to make your decision.

What do you expect from a weight-loss doctor?

You want a doctor who:

· Listens. Asks questions. Shows compassion. Doesn’t cut you off.

· Treats you with respect, like a person not an illness.

· Is easily reached by phone and promptly returns phone messages.

· Answers all your questions; never causes you to feel rushed.

· Shows a caring behavior and shows you respect.

· Shows respect for your time and doesn’t sacrifice quality of treatment for quick exams.

· Uses preventive medicine to help you lose weight as well as surgical.

· Provides comprehensive treatment by referring to other doctors with specialties.

· Has performed a least 50 successful surgical procedures that you are about to undertake

· Has the training, education, and experience

· Are 100 percent dedicated to bariatric surgery

· Has a practice with a solid support program in place

· Keeps you informed on latest research and treatments for your condition.

· Has staff members who are helpful and courteous and who return phone calls in a timely manner.

What Makes a Strong weight-loss Support Program?

· They have multiple layers of resources to assist and educated you. Tour the office; attend a support group meeting to test for yourself.

· They bring a motivational spirit to your soul the help you to achieve your future goals

· They help you to understand the changes as your body under goes transformation.

· The provide you access to weight loss supplements, counseling, support groups, on line educational seminars, access to other

· Are accessible

· Has an active group of past patient program – an Alumni Association so to speak

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Surgical Weight Loss Programs

bariatrics-0002Now Proudly Serving Selma and New Braunfels with Personalized Medical and Surgical Weight Loss Programs

· Estimated jobs to be hired within five months: 4-5

· Estimated people served annually: 325

Clarity Bariatrics, a Dallas based full serviced Medical and Surgical weight loss program has partnered their proven program with the experts associated with the Texas Bariatric Specialists. Combined, this team brings forth a awesome knowledge, experience, and most importantly solid clinically based weight Loss program developed specifically for the population located Comal County. The program is proven and is results focused. Heading the program is nationally as medical director, is nationally renowned bariatric surgeon and a certified surgeon of bariatric excellence, Dr. Nilesh A. Patel, M.D.

Dr. Patel has successfully perform over 1000 surgical procedures and has helped hundreds of other to obtain their weight loss dreams. He performs techniques referred to as minimally invasive weight-loss procedures. These procedures include Gastric Bypass, Lap-Band, Gastric Sleeve, and Revision surgeries. And yet, while he’s a nationally-recognized expert in this field he makes his home in the Hill Country. He patients compliment Dr. Patel’s directness, attentive care and overwhelming passion to help them live a better, longer life.

“You can’t even consider it a job anymore. It’s almost a gift you’ve been given to be able to make people happy,” Dr. Patel says. “We’ve had patients who were not able to get pregnant because of their weight and then, after their procedure, went on to have a child or multiple children. Patients are typically in the hospital for one or two days and back to work in just over a week. Immediately after surgery, the pounds begin to disappear while a number of health benefits will surface. Weight-loss procedures have been proven to reverse or drastically improve Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, hypertension, heart disease, sleep disorders, asthma and infertility. We truly make dreams come true.”

Adminstrating the program is Ronald A. Duperroir, who is a prior Army administrator from Brooke Army Medical Center. “This type of surgery is addictive for me because of the results. There is little else a doctor can do that revolutionizes a person’s world the way gastric bypass does,” says Duperroir. “Very few operations save lives and enhances a patient’s lifestyle at the same time. We are truly putting the life back in a person’s lifestyle.” “I believed in Dr. Patel, his approach, program and his colleagues so much that I recommended my father for the procedure. He flew in from Arizonia a type two diabetics and three week later flew home a non diabetic with cholesterol down and in check. Weight-loss surgery not only transforms a person physically, but mentally.

There a few programs that are truly totally 100 percent dedicated to medical and surgical weight loss. Clarity Bariatrics and the Texas Bariatric Specialists are one of those few in South Texas. Standing out from the rest, our program is the medical office staffed with doctors, psychologists and nutritionists to fully treat a patient before, during and long after their surgery.

Local residents seeking weight-loss measures now have quick access to doctors, support groups, free seminars, continuing education, protein supplements, sales and nutritional guidance. We’ve got a proven track record with happy people being treated and coached in multiple locations; this include access point in Austin, Corpus Christi, San Antonio. We also offers free educational meetings in Houston, Laredo, and Killeen.

Dr. Patel also specializes in revising failed weight-loss procedures and offers non-surgical programs. “You live in Selma and New Braunfels you should have your care in Selma and New Braunfels,” says Dr. Patel. We hope the community embraces our approach and dedication. “We’ve taken the first step forward by investing resources into this community and we hope our neighbors, in return, will utilize our many programs to improve their quality of life.” Patients and interested parties can call (877) 810-1074 to speak with a weight loss coach to schedule an visit to our of our many educational seminars and obtain directions to our location.

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Don’t self manage your ASC or hospital

bariatrics-0008
Don’t Go There Doctor. Lessons Learned: Don’t Self manage and Don’t Assume it’s Getting Done!

Ronald A. Duperroir, Principal Clarity

Why is your ASC or Hospital not profitable? Why is the partnership frustrated? Why are there no distributions? Nine times out of ten it is for one of two reasons, sometimes both: The founding physician (s), with good intent, attempted to manage the operations absent of the tools and time to make it successful; and/or 2) The management team, while perhaps proficient in their field, is spread too thin and no one monitors the outcomes or holds them or the staff operationally accountable – the partnership assumes if they do cases (volume) the rest will fall in line as agreed upon.

We have seen this scenario over and over again and we often wonder why some groups of physicians firmly believe they have the time and energy to design, build, operate, and manage a successful ambulatory surgery center (ASC)? Certainly we all want to have the best intentions in mind during the onset and money (management fees) are a driver in this decision. But it goes without saying that ASC management isn’t easy and seasoned administrators/managers know they have their work cut out for them from the start of conception. Be it from the start of the design process, monitoring construction costs, licensing, accreditation, selecting properly written managed care contracts, the price paid for supplies and equipment and successful daily operations. From clinical and financial operations, to customer (patient) relationship management (CRM), staffing and human resource (HR) issues, operating room management (ORM) turnover times, pick list management, equipment maintenance and procurement …. All of which can be leave a team swirling in an abyss of what priorities need to be accomplished in their never-ending list of duties and demands.

Lessons learned – Lessons Shared:

1. The best operating companies don’t do it alone regardless how tempting 6 percents looks; paying six percent to a good partner is better than a cash call

2. Choose a strong management team to partner with; physicians don’t have the time to run a successful practice, render and sustain quality surgical care, maintain strong professional referral networks, and manage a personal life. Add the responsibility of managing an ASC or Hospital and something will break somewhere in the chain

3. Choose your management team wisely; bigger is not always better – knowledge is the foundation, but also look at personality fits.

4. Examine all your contracts line by line and not just managed care contracts; don’t be afraid to say NO!

5. Don’t over build and over equipment your space; you’ll have a huge monthly debt for items you don’t need and will regret for years to come

6. You are in a manufacturing business with a mission to produce a successfully performed procedure (surgeries); in the big picture your are a healthcare manufacture. Think process, product flow, use of resources, and raw materials needed or on hand.

7. Watch the Expense line on your Profit and Loss Statements; monitor, monitor, monitor … then make continuous improvement (adjustments) – remember the feedback loop in all successful manufacturing models

8. Have the ability to know the cost of inventory on hand; if you don’t watch this closely, you will see items stacking up in some of the most bizarre places

9. Understand what a procedure cost from beginning to end; how much does it cost to produce a procedure, what’s your return?

10. Watch those contractual adjustments and daily cash operations; who has authority to adjust, at what amount and when?

11. Understand your accounts receivable (AR); what does it really mean? Do you match your AR with denials, short pays, etc..

12. Ensure there is a process for insurance verification, authorization and collection of deductibles and copayments.

13. Keep your chargemaster current and accurate; this is so very important and so very misunderstood

14. Choose your partners wisely; don’t spread yourself too thin with multiple specialties with a depth of one

15. Choose the right clinical leadership and team; if the clinical environment goes south a chain of negative affects will occur

16. Keep an eye out on working capital; if it is not there challenges begin and evidentially snow ball into operations and the pockets of others

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