Making something good out of something bad

A bet for $1,000 to a charity of the others choosing between myself and a doctor on the Sermo forum has degenerated into an ugly brawl. The bet was over whether or not the model EMR practice could out perform the model paper practice.  A doctor on Sermo claims 650k in net income seeing 50 patients per day, working 70 hour weeks with 1.5 FTEs plus his wife doing his billing. I conceded the overhead portion of the bet but had insisted (and he had agreed) that we compare "Apples to Apples" since our docs worked 35 hour weeks and see 20-25 patients per day.  The method that I would be willing to rely on, to account for his extraordinarily high patient volume was average visit reimbursement.  Obviously, if our docs saw as many patients as he did, their revenue would be roughly the same or higher when calculated by average visit reimbursement. Thus a reasonable "Apples to Apples comparison".  Our docs average $104 per vist collected ($107.93 in 2007).  His wife collects for him about $90 per visit. Instead of accepting this in the spirit of the bet and agreeing that we "split the difference" on two of the parameters (excluding a 3rd parameter - quality of care - which he refused to consider), I have been the recipient of name calling and insults.  I have refused to become enaged in mean spirited mud slinging and instead have attempted reconciliation. There was no clear winner based on the parameters specified, although suvarov and a loyal contingent of Sermoans have ganged up on me - and the emrupdate folks have rallied to my side of the argument - THANK YOU!

I do not concede defeat on this issue, but in the spirit of forgiveness and brotherly love, I happily make a donation to the Homes for Our Troops charity. The donation is for $5,000 which, if you go to their website, buys pitifully little for our injured troops. $1,000 seems almost empty. I challenge suvarov to make a similar donation if only because he enjoys a stratospheric income and it is for a very worthy cause.

Something to think about:  those of us who frequent emrupdate and other physician forums have been given a wonderful gift - the gift of intellect and compassion that define a good physician or, for others, the wisdom and competitive spirit to be entreprenurial successes in other in their own right.  Giving something back is not a lot to ask.  I challenge others to join me and make a pledge to this very worthy casue.  If a lot of people give a little, it adds up to something significant. I do not think I could have picked a better charity. Thank you suvarov for suggesting so worthy of a charity.

Proof for any skeptical Sermoans

Bravo DrWinn! 

Well done David. A truly just and worthy cause. If only we Brits looked after our veterans half as well, we would have something to be proud of. Maybe your tormentor will cease and desist. Hope so.

Nick 

David,

 I am full of admiration for your solution to this sticky issue. You have done yourself proud.

 Bob

P.S. While I can't match your donation (which I am sure Al will say is another sign that NextGen is going down the tubes ) I am going to log on to the site and donate.  I am happy to do so and hope that others will join in as David said. Regardless of how you feel about the war, this is a good thing to do.

Very cool and just says "goodness" all the way around!  

Thank you for the accolades.  Now, all you sinners, get your checkbooks out and donate!  :)

$5,000 is generous. Kudos, Dr. Winn. You (and the Veterans) came out the winner, regardless of the unofficial scorecard. 

To toot my own horn, I just helped to lead a small team in collecting a little under $1,000 for children at a large, local cancer center..."Kids Can Cope Too." It took a lot of energy but it was really worth it. I'm sure you could say the same about what it took for you to get the funds for your personal $5,000 check.

And, I picked up my 1 gallon donation badge today from the American Red Cross. I'd like to get 5 gallons in by years end. But, I think the 8 week "ban" after the last donation will make it impossible unless the center I go to gets an Apheresis machine. 

I don't know about you, but I catch a little "high" when giving to or taking part in charitable causes. 

I added this over at the blog, combined with a story about using Facebook for "causes" that a hospital is using to get contributions, another avenue to get contributions through the social networks.  

I had posted this on the blog and thought perhaps this could be a good fit here... 

A great story on Remote Area Medical...lives on donations....treated 17,000 patients last year...on one day they treated 600 people on Saturday....and Sunday there was a repeat of the same...the program relies on donations, very few from any big companies or big industries...originally his system was designed for 3rd world countries, but now 60% of his efforts are focused on taking care of citizens in the US....the video will open your eyes....this was both the under insured and non insured....there were more people than who could be cared for in the 2 days...there were 400 people who were turned away....this is absolutely one good charity worth a donation and paints a good picture of the reality of how our own system is not working for our citizens...BD

[youtube:H4kbag-f3K8]

At a time when the bean counters on Wall Street are finding the health insurance industry a bad risk, I have to ask how much longer the Beltway crowd is going to keep looking the other way.

According to this CJR report, regarding a series of studies from Health Care Week and other industry groups, the health care industry, drug manufacturers and other related industry groups are doing everything they can to insure there are no changes to their current profit margins:

Firedoglake » Health Care In America: Pay To Play Isn’t Working…For Anyone

Just returned from Sermo with a gaping wound - trying to defend this same old post about the stupid bet I made that EMRs always win out over paper (they do, but don't tell that to the EMR cynics).  I thought this had been put to bed with my capitulation and the donation.   Apparently several docs at Sermo just do cursory reads of these threads and jump to wrong conclusions.  I understand why anonymous posters on forums can sometimes get into the 'wild dog pack' mindset and rip people to shreds, but it surprises me that this behavior occurs on a doctors only forum and happens to named (non-anonymous) individuals.  I guess the 'savage beast' is encoded in our DNA.  Without law and religion we would probably eat our own young.

DrWinn:

Without law and religion we would probably eat our own young.

ROFL.

Rats do it.  Infanticide

Hey Winn, if you don't like sermo, I just bought sermo.ca and you can setup a blog and trash them. 

I like the idea of a physician only forum and the clinical insights and discussions there are outstanding.  It's the pettiness inherent to all forums that eats at my crawl.

I'm retired from the trash talking business.

DrWinn:

retired from the trash talking business.

Hey look what I just saw ?  

Dear Dr. Winn,

Not only did you show more collections per patient visit, but did you also factor into this "comparison" items such as dollars saved by things like staff not searching for charts, not wasting valuable office space just storing records, having access to charts remotely, remote prescription writing, auto-task generating features that remind you of things to do, access for your patients into the EMR via a portal so that you can get more robust patient records, more detailed info about the pt medication infoand hx, past surgeries, etc.....    the aiblity to have x-rays and other test results at your fingertips, lab results, etc... all from anywhere in the world????  or consider just the ability to reduce all the paper sitting on your desk, stacks of charts waiting to be reviewed, ...etc..w/ EMR those things are gone, and there are so many more intrinsic values that FAR exceed any specific, quantifyable dollar amount ..............   also, what about being able to track who has had access to patient records... with EMRs, you get electronic tracking that is defendable should audits occur, etc.... and also it lets you know who's been looking into your pt. charts..........  the added security of this feature alone is astonishing, but speaks nothing to "speed" .... speed is just ONE aspect of EMR and what it can do to enhance your practice's bottom line not only in profitablity but in quality of life for you AND your patients. can be simply amazing................   what about the increase in quality time that you are able to spend with your family, to be able to take a trip and still be able to get to your pt charts at a moment's notice and to be able to treat the pt and continue on with your vacation..... which will, in turn, make you a better doc AND a better spouse and father/wife for your family......  there are so many benefits that you simply can not attach a dollar amount to.....

 you win, hands down for so many reasons, but mostly due to you generous and thoughtful gift.