The New Year's Resolution contest is off to an amazing start.  As promised, I am going to share results with you.  Don't be intimidated by any of these - even a "Me, too!" is great.  Let's hear from you.

Amy from Pediatrics at Brookstone Center left this note on the original blog post (which is a great way to share):

My New Years Resolution will be to not only improve our practices dashboard, but to understand it to its entirety.
I have to admit that I have been briefly looking over it for the past year but not really focusing on it or trying to understand the whole dashboard and what all areas need improvement, attention or what our areas of concern are or should be. I would like to see not only myself as the office manager but our practice as a whole be more involved in improving these numbers and improving the growth and financial side of our practice as well.

For those who don't know, she's referring to PCC's Dashboard tool, which is designed to not only provide a series of pediatric specific measures for each practice, but to compare the effort to other pediatric practices in the same state, region, and the rest of the country. It should be no surprise that I'm a big fan of the tool because I use it myself every day when working with our clients. Amy, let us know how you do and what you learn!

Next, from a direct email to me (which shall remain anonymous unless I am told otherwise):

In 2014, the two founding partners (one of which is our acting office manager) of our practice are planning on retiring. As I expect to take on the extra responsibilities, I plan on learning as much as I can from them about office management and growing the practice. I have only been in our practice for 4 years, but have already learned a lot from [the doctor] about managing staff, handling conflicts, hiring a new physician, and running a profitable business. While I know attending a PMI seminar won't be able to instantly give me the knowledge [the doctors] have learned through experience the past 26 years, it would be a great jump start to help with managing the practice. Thanks for all of your great podcasts!

For the record, complimenting the podcast earns you extra points. I think this is a great resolution, I'd love to hear more specifics, too.
OK, now for a doozy from Robin Warner @ Union Pediatrics:

My “big” New Year's Resolution is to improve patient engagement. At first, my focus was going to be with the tween/teen population, but then I decided to do it with all patients.

As pediatricians, one thing we struggle with is having parents bring their kids in for well child checks when all of their vaccines are up to date. They don't need any school or sports forms, so the parent thinks, “why do they really need to go to the doctor, the doctor isn't going 'to do' anything.” (As opposed to the twice yearly dental visit, where teeth are cleaned/xrayed, etc). So the question is, what is a creative way (other than just telling them we monitor growth, development, emotional issues, puberty, screen for chronic diseases at these visits) to get them in the door.

So, I have decided to develop a patient “loyalty” program. This idea came from a combination of Todd Wolynn's gamification talk at the NCE and brainstorming on how to take something from a nonmedical industry and apply it to my practice.

Families would get loyalty “points” for a variety of things. The biggest points would be for yearly well exam attendance, referrals of other patients, and avoidance of urgent care/convenience care/ERs after hours. Points would also be awarded once a child has completed all ACIP recommended vaccines-as appropriate for age. Additional point sources would come from “liking” our Facebook practice page, signing up for the patient portal, utilizing the patient portal; using the messaging feature of the portal instead of calling, scheduling the next appointment before leaving, completing CHADIS questionnaires in advance of the visit (and extra points if the teen/tween does his/hers too, and double bonus points for teacher completed Vanderbilts for ADHD), bringing insurance card to each visit, updating demographics, calling the doctor when the office is closed before going to the ER/UC/CC, paying any outstanding balance within 30 days (if not paid at TOS). (I would love to be able to award points for each time the website is utilized to look up something before calling the doctor, but I don't know how that could be measured.)

For those with chronic health conditions (asthma, obesity, ADHD, behavioral health issues), points would be awarded for attending regular follow-up appointments, meeting treatment goals (improved nutrition and weight loss for obesity, flu vaccine and limited use of rescue meds for asthmatics) and completing questionnaires prior to visits.

Rewards would be given once certain minimum participation was obtained at various point levels, and would be done by random draw. An additional reward category would exist for the teen/tween age group, since they seem to be the most difficult to engage with.

I know it's a tall order, but I've got the best PMS/EHR system in the world to help me:-)

All I can say is...wow!  The bar has been set!  Amazing.