Physicians Practice - Tech Guide 2008 - (Page 59)

ONLINE ‘YUP, I’M A JUNKIE. AND PROUD OF IT.’ BY MITCHELL L. COHEN, MD MY ONLINE AUCTION ADDICTION HAS IMPROVED MY PRACTICE. CAN IT HELP YOURS, TOO? OK, I admit it. I’m an eBay junkie. Browsing, buying, selling — it’s all good. I’d buy more online if I could, but my nurse keeps interrupting me to insist I see patients. You’d be an eBay junkie, too, if you knew the rush of watching the clock count down to the moment an auction closes to see if anyone has dared to outbid you. Let me tell you how I got this way: It all started with a Christmas gift. My sister-in-law, knowing my afﬁnity for antique medical paraphernalia, bought me an old Schell doctor’s bag in wonderful condition. I logged onto to eBay later that Christmas day and I saw how many antique doctors’ bags were for sale, as well as many of the other medical antiques on the site; I was hooked. Antique surgical instruments, textbooks, journals, and instruments ﬁlled the Web pages. Hours could be spent, and were spent, perusing the odds and ends. In a matter of minutes, I signed up for my free eBay account and quickly made my ﬁrst bid on an item. It was for eight small labels meant to go on medication bottles from a couple of old mom-and-pop pharmacies. The labels were for a range of old apothecary items such as formaldehyde, camphorated oil, paregoric, and chloroform liniment. I thought they’d look great framed and in my ofﬁce. I placed my bid of a whopping $10. When nobody outbid me, I felt the high of making my ﬁrst eBay purchase. From there I found myself searching eBay at least a few times a week during lunch and between patient visits for unique tidbits from medicine’s past, but my obsession didn’t stop there. WWW.PHYSICIANSPRACTICE.COM You see, eBay has modern medical instruments and equipment for sale as well. Anything that goes into a modern physician’s ofﬁce can be found there. Pulse oximeters, EKG machines, ultrasound equipment, and even scrubs are available to bid on and purchase. I bought an old (but never used) HP SpragueRappaport stethoscope. This gem, which I spent six months looking for, has not been made for a few years now and was quite the hot commodity among us regular searchers. I’m not the only physician with an eBay addiction. One of the residents I teach said that he regularly sells items when he’s strapped for cash at the end of the month. Need to pay the electric bill? Sell the ophthalmascope/otoscope set that was never used. Want to go out for a nice dinner? Put up that old pathology textbook. Many physicians’ ofﬁces struggle with what to do with used equipment that works well but is somewhat outdated. Online auctions are a means to unload such items to offset the cost of the upgrade. Getting set up to sell an item is somewhat more complicated than purchasing one, but still it can usually be done during a lunch break. Getting out the digital camera and taking some well-framed pictures is the ﬁrst and most important step in listing an item; pictures do speak a thousand words. What the pictures of the item do not show, the item’s description needs to make up for. Include basics such as the brand name, model number, and its age. Other helpful tidbits for the buyer are the item’s history (number of owners, etc.), its condition, and any unique bells and whistles worth noting. TECHNOLOGY GUIDE | PHYSICIANS PRACTICE | 59 http://WWW.PHYSICIANSPRACTICE.COM

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Physicians Practice - Tech Guide 2008

Physicians Practice - Tech Guide 2008 TG Cover Story: Protect Your Practice and Sleep Better Operations: Paperless? Not Quite The Internet: You've Got Mail...Or Do You? Patient Relations: Attention Grabbers The Tech Doctor: All About Blogs Lessons Learned: 'My EMR Nightmare...And Why I'd Do It Again' Scheduling: No More No-Shows The Marketplace: Who's Got Your Back IT Enhancement: Time, at Last, for an Upgrade? Online: 'Yup, I'm a Junkie. And Proud of It.' In the Office: New Technologies in the Workplace: Blessing or Curse? Web Surfing: If You Build It...

Physicians Practice - Tech Guide 2008

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