1. I added a Nevada Medical Lab Personnel page to the Policies and Training page. I need to walk through the process with someone to see steps beyond what I added. 
2. I added new patient forms. Please review and let me know if I need to update or replace forms. Also let me know what packets you want created. 
3. I added a Front Desk Visitor Log. We need to have a 3-ring binder or folder with this and enter vendors or reps who come in the office, like Joe, Compliance Alliance or Sahara Air. That way, if there is a HIPAA issue, we know everyone who was in the office. 
4. I added Lyme testing and SNHD forms to the Back Office forms. Please review.
5. I added MR Invoice, Depo Request Response and Termination Letter to Check Out forms just to have. 
6. I added some links to Scheduling under SFM Info.
7. I sent Christina and Sally the Patient Rights and Responsibilities to consider. 

• HIPAA and IT Security Policies have been formalized and added to the website.
• Training has been created for policies. Quizzes have been created to be completed at the end of training. Completed quiz is emailed to Contact@SFM.com to be checked. If staff misses a question, have them review training and complete quiz. If staff still misses questions, review training with them until successful completion of the quiz. 
• Successful quizzes should be signed by the Admin and Staff member. Original should be filed in staff’s personnel file with a copy in the Policies Binder. 
• The AB 474 Controlled Substance Rx forms were added to the top menu under “SFM Forms, Back Office Forms.”

A PDF form showing how to setup email at a station is now listed on the HR Forms page. If you are at a station for just a temporary period, I would still recommend using online email access at https://webmail.1and1.com/.

If you are working at more than one station on a regular basis, the Email Station Setup document will help to setup Mozilla Thunderbird for your email at each location.

This document may help with scheduling patients. (Click Here)

If a patient calls and only wants to leave a message for the provider, we need to “escalate” these issues as follows:

• Explain to the staff that office policy requires that any message sent to the provider includes the patient message.
• Explain that it isn’t possible to adequately triage any issues without information.
• If the patient insists on not providing message details, say, “Let me see if Sally/Lee Ann/Chistina are available to help.”

I think this will make patients feel better about leaving messages.  One of my lessons from working the front desk years ago is that patients believe the “first person” can’t be that important, (e.g. whoever answers the phones, greets the patient). We might effective address these patients by letting them talk to someone they might perceive as “higher up.”

Click on the “Comments” above for additional thoughts.

As SFM providers develop the patient population that is consistent with their desired practice model, SPM staff need to be aware of the following:

• Patients may be dismissed from the practice for any reason. As SFM becomes more focused on functional medicine, patients are being dismissed with greater frequency, including those patients who are non-compliant, disparage functional medicine/the practice or have multiple no-shows or late cancellations.
• Once patients are dismissed, they should not be allowed to schedule an appointment unless approved by the provider. Practices are required to continue care for 30 days for acute issues. For SFM, this generally means completing prescription refill requests.
• If patients ask about why they were dismissed, the standard answer is, “I can’t tell you–I don’t know. SFM providers may dismiss  a patient for any reason, including if the provider just doesn’t think the patient is a good fit for the practice.”

The summary from the staff walk-abouts  and provider meeting for February:

Staff

• Operations seem to be going smoothly.
• Need to address document prep for visits, e.g. making sure that hospital notes have been received prior to a hospital follow up visit.
  • eCW may have a “pending” jelly bean options that can help with this.
• Will try to schedule a Lyme talk for staff.
• All staff should be getting transcripts of voice mails sent to email.
• Focus on customer service within bounds, i.e. helping the patient to the extent that our policies allow.
  • Lower capacity means increased boundaries.
• Staff web site needs to be checked each morning with email.

Providers

• Patients who haven’t been seen for three years are inactive patients. They would need to reestablish as new patients.
• Need to make sure that scheduling reflects purpose of visit. “Follow up” is too general. “Refill” needs to include medication.
• The rendering provider needs to be checked with scanner documents. All documents should not be scanned and sent to Dr. Sparks.

Read about how changes at Sparks Family Medicine impact scheduling HERE (SPM Scheduling Memo).

Everyone needs to be aware of scam emails presenting as potentially related to legitimate business, such as invoices, contracts, receipts, refunds or subpoenas.

Scam emails tend to have the following components:

1.  The subject includes “RE:” indicating that it is a response to an email the recipient sent. The subject also includes a relevant business topic like, “invoice,” “work contract,” “payment,” or “lawsuit.”
2. Back in the day, scam emails came from addresses like “Unknown@XYZcorp.” Now, scam emails come from ordinary people named “acpoper,” “Randy,” “marie” and “cwalters2” who work at seemingly legitimate businesses.
3. There is seldom an address used, such as “Dear Mr. Sparks…” Instead, the email starts with the body of the email and is not addressed to any specific recipient in the body of the email.
4. The email references some previous or existing business activity and directs you to click an attachment.

Here is a file with examples of scam emails I have received just in the past couple of weeks. I’ve added some witty observations for fun  (e3Business eMail Scams).

If you have any question, DO NOT OPEN the email or the attachment, (use your preview screen). Email Brett and ask if he knows anything about it. Thank you!

All,

I’ve added a flow chart provided by ADP for dealing with a workplace injury. Everyone should review. It is located on the HR Forms page HERE. 

Thank you,

Brett