Americans Travel to Bangkok to Receive Medical Care

Outsourcing medical transcription to the Philippines and India has been one a hot topic for medical transcription service owners for the past couple of years.  And allowing foreign-trained nurses come into American hospitals has been an area of debate for some time in the medical staffing world.  This trend might take even more precedence–the rising popularity of overseas hospitals catering to uninsured and underinsured Americans.One such growing example of this kind of foreign health care facility is Bumrungrad Hospital.  Located in Bangkok, Thailand, half of the 65,000 Americans who went to Bumrungrad Hospital for in-patient or out-patient treatment last year were uninsured U.S. residents who flew across the Pacific for medical care.

Click here to read the BusinessWeek article: Checking into Bumrungrad Hospital.

 

Two Free eBooks on Factoring Small Receivables

If you are an entrepreneur who wants to understand factoring or a cash flow consultant looking for more information on accounts receivable factoring, these two eBooks are sure to help you learn more.  Jeff Callender, president of Dashpoint Financial Services, Inc. and author of several factoring books and articles, is offering two free eBooks for people who are interested in learning more about the art of factoring.What is Factoring? and Factoring Vs. Other Financing are available as free downloads on Jeff Callender’s Web site.  Taken from his books, Factoring Small Receivables and Unlocking the Cash in Your Company, these eBooks can be used as an extensive introduction to accounts receivable factoring.

We invite you to check them out and let us know what you think!

Click here to learn more about Jeff Callender’s free eBook offer.

AHDI Promotes New Membership Contest

From March 1-April 30, AHDI, formerly AAMT, is sponsoring a kickoff contest to promote membership growth. The goal of the contest is to gain 540 new members to generate new energy and momentum at all levels of the Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity.

As an active supporter of AHDI, PRN Funding encourages medical transcription service owners to join the association. Not to mention, there are some great prizes being given away to the winners.

Click here for more information on the 2008 AHDI Membership Contest or click here to complete the AHDI application form.

Are Baby Boomer Nurses Burning Out?

AMN Healthcare published the results of their 2008 Survey of Nurses 45 to 60 Years Old Based on 2007 Data, and the research points to baby boomers nurses could be facing career burnout.  Fifty-five percent of nurses actively involved in patient care are 45 years old or older, and 36 percent on 50 and older.Of the 7,500 surveys mailed, 1,831 were returned with responses.  We have included some of the responses below:

52.6% are currently working in a permanent hospital staff position.51.1% have over 26 years of nursing experience. 

45.8 % of the nurses surveyed said they are less satisfied with their job now then they were five years ago. 

82.5% of the nurses surveyed identify the nurse shortage as the main source of the professional frustration. 

41.5% of those surveyed said that nursing is less dynamic, rewarding, and robust than when he/she began their nursing career 

Q: With the general aging baby boomer population looming, it’s easy to see how crucial temporary nurse staffing agencies will become in solving this nurse shortage problem.  How would you solve it?

VA Offers New Travel Nurse Program

It seems like everyone has something to say about the increasing nurse shortage, but there aren’t many who have come up with a solution to the ever-present problem.  According to a press release issued on March 11, the Department of Veteran Affairs has a plan–Travel Nurse Corps.

Headquartered at the Phoenix VA Health Care System, “participating nurses may be temporarily assigned to distant medical centers and clinics to help nursing staffs that have vacancies, to reduce wait times or the reliance upon contractors, or to maintain high-skill services and procedures.”

Click here to read the entire press release: VA’s New ‘Travel Nurse Program’ Hits the Road

Q: What do you think about this new venture?  Should Travel Nurse Corps be viewed as competition to private travel nurse staffing agencies?

Trade Show Exhibiting Tips from Skyline

If you plan on exhibiting at an industry-specific trade show, such as MTIA for medical transcription services owners, the19th Annual NNBA Conference for nurse staffing entrepreneurs, or the 30th Annual AAPC Expo for medical coding consultants, here are some helpful tips provided by Skyline Exhibits:Talk to EVERYONE that comes within shouting distance of your booth.  Approach everyone with a smile, have no fear and you will be amazed at the results.

 

Just because you have spent big bucks on your display, people may still not understand what you are selling. Draw them in and tell your story.

Most people are wandering through the exhibit hall because they are looking for something new.  They cannot come home and face the boss without a sack full of exhibit hand-outs….it is a “seller’s market.”

 

Once I pull them from the aisle and into the booth, I always go into the long version “chat.”  People will give off enough clues pretty quickly if they feel you are wasting their time, which in turn, is wasting your time.   If the clues are present, I quickly fall into just the overview talk, wrap it up with a “thanks for stopping by,” and let them move on.I have had many successes with people I “drug” into the booth, and explained our product.  These are the same people who told me that they were glad I made them stop because they had no intention of visiting the booth until I began the “chat.”
 – Warren Hand, Institute for Healthcare Advancement

 

One of the most often-heard objections from booth staffers is their concern about losing touch with their clients while attending the show and putting their time in at the booth.  One means of helping to relieve this concern is by creative scheduling as the next reader’s tip points out:

 

Schedule your sales people according to what time zone their territory is in.  If the show is on the West coast don’t schedule your East coast sales people in the mornings.  Put them on in the afternoon, that gives them an opportunity to take care of their clients back home during the AM on the West coast, which is still working hours on the East coast.  That way you won’t have cranky sales people whining about taking away their ability to meet their weekly goals.
– Traci Browne, Red Cedar Publicity and Marketing

 

To all our readers who are sales folk, just kidding about the “cranky” and we know that you never whine . . .  Moving right along, the next tip offers the suggestion that the responsibilities for booth staffing are not confined to the hours that the exhibit hall is officially open. . .

 

When setting up your display at a trade show and before the doors open to the conferees, you may, from time to time, get interrupted by someone just walking around looking.  That person could be a future sale and is worth receiving a personal invitation to come back and see your product when your display is completely set up.
– John Conti, President, Continental Covers

 

Or when you are within the boundaries of your exhibit:

 

No matter if you are in the booth or not, any time you spend at the show dressed in your company’s attire – you represent your company.  This includes your breaks, lunch etc.  I have made many quality contacts while on lunch or in the break/smoking area, just by initiating regular conversation.  This leads to the inevitable question: “What does your company do?”  I always use this as an opportunity to invite people back to our booth.
– Kris Magnotti, Hahn RaceCraft

 

The theme of creating an inviting and comfortable environment for your guests runs consistently through all the readers’ tips about booth staffing.  The thought is nicely expressed by this reader:

 

Make sure to dress appropriate for the conference or show – too dressy or too casual may not work for the type of show you are at.  You want your attendees to feel “at home” in your booth. Remember to always invite attendees into your booth with a warm smile and friendly greeting; the rest will take care of itself if you are prepared. Just be yourself, relax and remember its okay to have fun. We always have a big jar of chocolates in our booth – no one can resist!  We find it’s a great way to start a conversation.
– Jan Wyatt, MECO Engineering

 

We close with another sentiment that has been expressed by many people who have sent us their thoughts about succeeding on the show floor:

 

Love what you are selling. The client or customer can tell if you are faking it. Be knowledgeable about all areas of the business, not just your product. You never know what questions you might be asked.
– Kate Getty, Stephens College

 

 

Updates from AHDI and MTIA Partnership

We received a briefing the other day from the AHDI-MTIA partnership and it looks like they have been hard at work since they partnered in May 2007.  Here’s a glimpse of some of the current initiatives:

TROTTS, also known as Transcribed Report Optimum Turnaround Time, revolves around a study of both HIM directors/supervisors and MTSO managers/supervisors to measure their experiences with turnaround times (TAT), whether or not that time meets their needs and to help understand medical transcription industry challenges, financial impacts, as well as the impact of offshore medical transcription and Electronic Health Records (EHR).  This group will publish a White Paper that will establish defininitions and standards for TAT and will demonstrate how both the use of specific standards and turnaround time affect clinical decision-making.

ASRT (Automated Speech Recognition Technology Workgroup) is currently working on a type of “buyer’s guide to speech recognition technology,” which is scheduled to be completed in August 2008.

CDA4CDT, or the Clinical Document Architecture for Common Document Types brought together a large group of medical transcription industry stakeholders to help establish a common document architecture to preserve the narrative report component of histories, consultations, etc.  Within a year, the CDA4CDT group plans to make five mayor reports available: H&P, Consultations, Discharge Summary, Op Note and Imaging.

A QA Best Practices document is being put together which includes official verification of methods and sampling and still offers a methose to define errors in documentation in a numerical point system and also looks at the impact of time and cost involved with achieving quality assurance.  In addition, CEO Preziosi will eventually seek endorsement from The Joint Commission with a fully endorsed paper to follow in the fall.

Again, PRN Funding is excited about the partnership between MTIA and AHDI and the progress that it has made for the medical transcription industry during its first year is amazing.  We look forward to hearing more good news from them in the future.

Where to find Money for Your New Business

There’s goods news and bad news when it comes to locating startup capital for a new healthcare company. For example, if you own a healthcare vendor business, such as a temporary nurse staffing agency or a medical transcription service, PRN Funding can help fund your company by purchasing your accounts receivable. Selling your invoices to a factoring firm is just one way you can bypass commercial bank’s stricter lending restrictions.

Businessweek.com offers some more ideas in their recent articles, Busting the ‘Free Money’ Myth and Little Lenders: Small Banks May be Your Best Bet.

Unfortunately, there is a common misconception that entrepreneurs can tap government grants and interest-free loans to use for their startup companies. The article, Busting the ‘Free Money’ Myth, explains that although the U.S. government gives grants to help with small businesses, most of that money goes to local governments, state agencies and nonprofits–not individuals. The articles also explains that loans coming from the Small Business Administration (SBA) often carry a higher interest rate that a loan from a conventional bank because of the risk involved with a startup company.

Moreover, the article, Little Lenders, shares some interesting statistics supporting the fact that smaller community banks generally are willing to lend money to small businesses as compared to the larger commercial banks. Quoting the president and chief executive of the Independent Community Bankers of America Camden R. Fine, “Community banks focus primarily on small businesses, mom-and-pop operations and consumers because the footprint [of these banks] is a single town or small cluster of towns, they know their customers really well.” Even with their loyalty to the smaller companies, many community banks are still tightening their lending standards because of the credit crunch.

So the bads news is it’s harder to gain access to capital via conventional means. The good news is that there are some alternative way of financing startups. Accounts receivable factoring and payroll funding are just two alternate ways to create a positive business cash flow.

What are some other ways you can think of to help finance your new business?