Launching Your Practice with Your MVP (Probably NOT What You Think!)

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MVP Minimum Viable Product

Anyone who helps a patient get what they need from the healthcare system is an MVP (Most Valuable Person!), especially in the eyes of patients and their loved ones. That’s probably the MVP you thought would be the subject of this post. Nope! Instead, in this post I’m going to feature a business concept called MVP, used by start-up businesses that are trying to determine when it’s time for them to launch. MVP as a Start-Up Business Concept As they […]

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Consider This: Giving Advice, Making Decisions, and Nuance

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image - giving advice

An email from Helen, a soon-to-be independent advocate, posed this question to me: When I read the codes of ethics and best practices for advocates, I am clear that we can’t make decisions for clients. But how can I give them advice without sounding like I’m making a decision for them? Example: they asked me to find a neuro-oncologist for them. So I did. But now it seems like I was deciding which doctor they should see – making that

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Takers vs Givers: Far More Than Nuance for Advocates and Care Managers

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caregiver or caretaker

Once when my mother was still alive (she passed in 2009) while she was in the late stages of Alzheimer’s, I visited my parents from 1200 miles away, seeing them for the first time in several months. Dad looked exhausted. “No wonder you’re so tired, Dad. Being Mom’s caretaker must be exhausting.” Dad, who had always been there for Mom – her incredibly supportive husband – paused for a moment, then replied, “Yes. It can be exhausting. You’re right. But

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Penny Wise, Pound Foolish, Lost Opportunity

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Penny Wise dumb decisions image

I have two stories to tell you today to illustrate the reason for this tip, both of which will, hopefully, turn on that “aha!” lightbulb that resides in our heads… Story #1: The first story was told to me by a neighbor who has a son, Brian, thirty-something, who, as she explained, lacks the common sense he was born with. (To me, the jury is out on whether he was, actually, born with it at all….) Brian has made foolish

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What’s Next? Managing Client Expectations

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doors

Years ago, I worked with the staff at a large primary care practice teaching them some basic customer service-type skills to help them better manage their patients and, frankly, improve their own job satisfaction, too. Nurses, receptionists, the referral and billing groups – clinical and non-clinical staff attended. We made lists of patient complaints, then worked together to develop some simple and no-cost approaches they could use to reduce complaints. I then asked them to begin implementing some of those

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