Dr. R. is a rare & special person, as well as a caring Physician. He actually cares about people’s lives enough to offer a service that most Drs run away from. Treating pain is no picnic. It takes a rare & special person to take on this challenge. Many pts have learned to be manipulative, dishonest and dangerously unreliable, to secure treatment from medical professionals who do not understand Pain Tx and are therefore NOT compassionate re: pain pts.\r
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But unfortunately Dr. R is not a business manager! (In defense of Dr. R, this is an all-to-common scenario in the medical profession). Based on observable evidence, his key office processes are totally Ad-hoc, & severely dis-optimized. Simple process documentation, review and automation solutions have not been done (w/ notable success anyway). These simple solutions are painfully evident… but not to the office staff, who work in a reactive, crisis-based task priority environment. Simply asking a 3rd party to document the core procedures required to check-in, check-out and schedule appointments in a given day, would have immediate value! Investing in a process improvement expert would see actual $ pay back within 4-6 months. \r
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If Dr would make a good faith attempt to improve office processes (document current proc., document the best-case scenario, do a gap analysis and tailor a customized Proc. Improvement Plan) this clinic could be THE Model for turning difficult Pain patients into effective people who actually live rather than just survive.\r
Pros: Dr. is compassionate and understands Pain Tx
Cons: Office processes and procedrs are embarrassingly ineffective
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