Streamlining Workflow In the Practice Pays Off

▸ Embrace and use new technology. Use the available tools for billing, coding, and communications. Electronic medical records are not perfect and the transition can be painful—“It's like 3 months of pure hell”—but they are becoming a necessity. The need to log lab results for pay for performance is “the single best argument for an EMR,” Dr. Applegate added.

The most important take-home message is to avoid batching difficult tasks, she emphasized. Get it done in real time. “It really does work!”