Physician's Practice - November 2008 - (Page 21)

PAGING DR. FISH You love your patients, but some of their feet … you, uh, love less. Maybe you should hire an associate to nibble off all unsightly calluses before you perform a foot exam. Utilized in Turkey for the past century to treat psoriasis, the Gara Rufa fish, commonly known as a Doctor Fish, uses toothless suction to consume only dead skin, leaving healthy, living tissue — and soft, touchable feet — behind. The ﬁsh have now crossed the pond to a nail spa in northern Virginia — Yvonne Hair, Nail, and Tan Salon — located just outside of Washington, D.C. Thinking about starting a new revenue stream? The owners are looking for investors. WE DO NOT LIKE SNEAKS We’re a little disturbed by what seems like a rash of Peeping Tom-itis in the healthcare arena. To wit: • Two employees at University of New Mexico Hospital were recently busted for taking pictures of patient injuries with cell phones and then posting the photos on the social networking site MySpace, despite a clear hospital policy forbidding such behavior. • Park Nicollet Clinic, located in the Minneapolis, Minn., metropolitan area, suspended about 100 employees in the past year for unauthorized eyeballing of patient medical records — mostly those of friends and family. • Dozens of employees at North Bergen, N.J.-based Palisades Medical Center suffered a month-long suspension for checking out George Clooney’s medical record after he was treated for injuries he sustained in a motorcycle accident. BREAST MILK IS BEST, BUT NOT FOR DESSERT Who would want to substitute breast milk for cow’s milk as an ingredient for ice cream? That’s exactly what PeTA recently urged the cofounders of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream to do — swap out bovine milk for human milk in their frozen concoctions for the benefit of all. Luckily, Ben & Jerry politely declined PeTA’s suggestion, so your Phish Food is safe for now. A MATCH MADE IN e-HEAVEN Here are two common but opposite problems: Dr. A owns his office space but he underutilizes it because he’s regularly in surgery two days a week. Dr. B would like to rent some space for a satellite office in the same town as Dr. A, but only for two days a week. How do they find each other? Through ShareMedicalSpace.com, a Web site that allows a physician to post a rental listing of his available ofﬁce space, outlining in detail what his space has to offer: number of exam rooms, which days the space is available, lease price, and all included amenities. Physicians who are looking for medical offices — but not yet ready to buy their own digs — can search the listings by entering location parameters and narrowing key words. STAT Prosper and Live Long Difference in U.S. life expectancy between the poorest and the richest at age 65, with rich people living longer: Years in 1980: 0.3 0.3 1.6 NOVEMBER 2008 | PHYSICIANS PRACTICE | Years in 2000: WWW.PHYSICIANSPRACTICE.COM 21 http://www.ShareMedicalSpace.com http://WWW.PHYSICIANSPRACTICE.COM

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Physician's Practice - November 2008

Physician's Practice - November 2008 Contents Death of Solo Practice Just a Myth Letters HSAy What? Noteworthy Finding Lost Revenue: The Search for Billing and Coding Gold Getting More: Our Annual Physician Compensation Survey ’Tis the Season to be Neutral Ask the Experts Evaluating Paperless Labs HR in a Box? The Guide Coding Third-Party Audits on the Rise Branding the Cash-Only Practice Intra-Office Tug-of-Wars Stickin‘ Up For Yourself Classifieds Advertiser Index

Physician's Practice - November 2008

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