5 Areas of Concern for Physician Offices, Part 1

As part of the ongoing risk management activities performed by MLMIC, 43 medical office practice surveys were conducted over the past two years. The offices surveyed included numerous primary care, surgical, and specialty practices. The surveys focused on several areas, including general office appearance, personnel, office protocols, billing/collection practices, medication control, appointment scheduling, medical records, telephone coverage, and office equipment.

While numerous recommendations were made in many areas, we’ll focus on the top five areas of concern:

1. follow-up of test results;
2. telephone calls;
3. documentation in the medical record;
4. the medical record; and
5. human resources.

Click here (beginning on page 1) to read the recommendations in full, and stay tuned for part 2 of this article when we address the next five areas of concern.