Igor and I have been working tirelessly on the various pediatric benchmarks we track for our customers (and the rest of the world). In fact, we've been focusing on developing a single PCC financial benchmark figure, with a clinical one to follow.

As a result of building this page, we have had to do a lot of thinking about normalization of scores, benchmark "ranges" and more. I thought I'd share a quick review of a tiny part of what we've seen so far. Here are three interesting changes in the values of key measurements from 2006 to 2007:

First, I like seeing that 7% drop in the median A/R days! It's particularly notable when we realize that even more PCC customers dropped capitation this year (bye bye, BCBS HMO of NJ).

Also interesting is the "Revenue Per Visit" data. For the first time ever, PCC clients have passed the magic $100/visit line - an increase of over 10% - good news. Great news, actually. Until you pull the immunizations out of it...and realize that nearly 80% of the increase our customers saw in their revenue last year got plowed straight back into the pharms. No wonder they have such bad reputations.

Still, no need to sneeze at a 3% increase in per-visit revenue when report after report shows things moving in the opposite direction.

Meanwhile, some of you may want to check out this blog/podcast, the Pediatric Pearls Show. In an ideal situation, I envision a practice getting a call from a mom about, say, wanting care for her kid with a cold, but not having the time to bring him on - perhaps the nurse could direct the mom to the episode about The Common Cold? Of course, you have to vet these for yourself, but it's an overdue idea.