Ophthalmology Patient Portal and Online Communication Editorial

Tis the Season for Technology

December 1, 2008

As the parent of three teenagers, I find that Christmas wish lists get more and more expensive each year. Gone are the days of the inexpensive Barbie doll or a box of LEGOs, the stuffed dog or the cheesy board game. Now my kids desire the newest in technology: the iPod, iPhone, iTouch, you get the picture. While some of these devices are small in stature, they certainly pack a punch at the cash register. This infatuation with new technology has my wife resorting to wrapping empty boxes and placing them under the tree just to fill the space currently occupied by the tiniest of new technologies.

Whenever I think of advances in technology over the past few years, I am also reminded of a conversation I overheard in the mid-1990s. I was riding in the back of my grandfather’s car as he was driving with one of his octogenarian friends. They were marveling about the technology that had been created in their lifetime, things such as the automobile, airplanes, television, and

 Tony Davis, CPA
 Principal, Health Care
 LarsonAllen LLP

the computer chip. I chuckled at their certainty that they had “seen all that technology had to offer.” But even I couldn’t have foreseen the dramatic impact of the technology that was about to change the way we live forever - the Internet.

However, despite the world changing impact that the Internet has had on all of us, physician practices have to this point failed to capitalize on the technological tools that are available to them. Tools such as pre-registration, online scheduling and payment, Web marketing and patient quality surveys are remarkably absent from many practices. As I travel the country, working with groups on how to improve their operations and ultimately their profitability, I see over and over again the antiquated methods, the labor intensive processes, and the overall lack of the basic technologies that are commonplace in most industries and homes. It is easier to find examples of this online, real time technology being utilized by the three teenagers in my house (on a seemingly minute by-minute basis) than in a medical clinic.

My counsel to these physician practices is that profitability lies in the ability of an organization to develop a technology matrix that connects them to patients, health systems, pharmaceutical companies, and each other. I have found that the practice that fully utilizes technology will also achieve a gold standard of operations, which will, in turn, maximize compensation and provide exceptional access and meaningful information to patients.
 

Tony Davis, CPA
Principal Health Care
Email:tdavis@larsonallen.com
LarsonAllen LLP