Practice Management Q&As

Making time for staff meetings

Our practice has cut out weekly staff meetings. Instead, our office manager sends a memo every week to keep everyone up to date. That seems to work well, but I feel meetings have real value. What do your experts think?

Don't give up on staff meetings. While memos are fine for passing along information, they can't solicit feedback or provide the sense of "ownership" your staff would gain from true involvement. If you're all pressed for time, maybe you can cut down to one staff meeting a month-during lunch, with pizza.

A local nursing home would like to "borrow" one of our NPs every Thursday. She would report to their site and work for them, and they would reimburse us her salary for that day. Does this arrangement present any legal problems?

It could. Consult a healthcare attorney to draw up a contract in accord with the MD-NP collaboration/supervision rules, nursing home regulations, and relevant state and federal laws that apply in your case. Here are some things to consider:

In this issue, the answers to our readers' questions were provided by: Barry B. Cepelewicz, MD, JD, Meiselman, Denlea, Packman, Carton & Eberz, White Plains, NY; Jeffrey M. Kagan, MD, Newington, CT; H. Christopher Zaenger, CHBC, Z Management Group, Barrington, IL.

Do you have a practice management question that may be stumping other doctors, too? Write: PMQA Editor,Medical Economics, 123 Tice Blvd., Suite 300, Woodcliff Lake, NJ 07677-7664, or send an e-mail to mepractice@advanstar.com (please include your regular postal address). Sorry, but we're not able to answer readers individually.