Business of Medicine

Rent the Right Way: Medical offices require unique leases

As tenants of medical office spaces, physicians often create special leasing issues. Medical tenants use hazardous materials, generate biomedical waste, demand confidentiality of patient records and require compliance with occupational safety standards—all unique aspects of the medical profession. Yet, often, physicians will sign “form” medical office lease agreements provided by the landlord without the benefit of legal counsel. Typically, the landlord provides a standard fill-in-the-blank lease form with the tenant’s name and the general business terms (including the term of lease, rental rate and commencement date). Tenants may gloss over the legal boilerplate provisions included in the lease agreement, assuming that these terms are standard to all leases and are not subject to negotiation.

Chaos Control: Plan ahead to ensure your practice survives a disaster

Ten years have passed since the U.S. was attacked on September 11, 2001 and six since Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast. And, while disasters of that magnitude are rare, hundreds of smaller-scale disasters occur every year, including tornadoes, blizzards, fires, earthquakes, airline crashes and chemical spills.

The Lost Art of Medicine: Patient care is paramount in practice

The science of medicine continues to expand rapidly, and this is obviously good for humanity. The art of medicine, on the other hand, has been largely forgotten. This skill is the basis of the time-honored physician-patient relationship and is an important aspect of good patient care. So why have so many physicians forgotten this basic skill? Why would a caring physician disregard any expertise that would benefit his patient?

Update Your Practice: Follow these tips to select the right EMR for your group

I have been working with electronic medical records (EMR) for many years, having first become interested in 1996, when I was looking for a tool to collect data for pediatric sinusitis. As we designed a product to collect this data, our scope expanded into developing a subspecialty-specific EMR. I have since learned a great deal about developing and codifying information and am currently participating in my third and largest implementation of an EMR at Boys Town National Research Hospital in Omaha, Neb. In this column, I would like to discuss what to look for in an EMR and give some initial thoughts on implementation.

Structural Support: Surgeons extol the cartilage stability provided by a new nasal implant

For patients who undergo septoplasty to repair a crooked septum, reconnecting pieces of cartilage and stabilizing the cartilage during the healing process is critical to achieving straight alignment of the nasal septum. Stabilizing cartilage is particularly challenging for patients who require correction of severe septal deviations or severe post-traumatic deformities that are often both functional and cosmetic.

Help or Hoopla?: Surgical robots can benefit otolaryngology

The large, roadside billboards advertised robotic surgery in bright, bold colors, something that struck David Eibling, MD, professor of otolaryngology at the University of Pittsburgh, as “fundamentally wrong.” Hospitals and physicians “should not be offering robotic surgery as a draw for patients,” said Dr. Eibling, who noticed the billboards while traveling through Florida earlier this year, “but rather as a potential tool to benefit the care of the patient.”