What was the first video game you played? Since Santa Claus is awesome, I actually had an Atari game system in my house with a joystick controller and a paddle wheel for Pong.And I recall putting all of my quarters into Space Invaders at our local skating rink. I spent a lot of time in the arcade because I couldn't skate backwards and was scared to ask a girl to “couples skate.”
The secret to Space Invaders, like most video games, is in the “clicking.” You've got to use your fastest hand to click the shooting button. Because the faster you clicked, the higher your score. You could always spot the lefties, because they played the video games cross-handed to maximize clicking speed. Not all games require reckless clicking, but most did and still do.
I never became much of a gamer. I still like a video game for a few minutes, but once I got facial hair I was able to give it up for the most part. Hopefully, I was good enough to regain my “clicking” ability, because we are going to need it.
Lately, I have been writing about my recent revelation about what is happening to our profession and what we need to be doing to get ready. This has led to many deep conversations with a number of our Leadership OD members and I want to share some details about what I am continuing to learn.
But I can sum up in one short sentence what we need to do...Get good at clicking.
There are three things that will control the future of healthcare - data, data and data. The doctors that are going to thrive in the near future will be the best at collecting it, sharing it, and showing that they got it. And you can be one of them, if you get going now.
So why are we talking so much about clicking?
The clicking matters because the only data that will matter is what goes into the right spot in your record. We all understand the need to dilate a diabetic patient and carefully evaluate for retinopathy. But it is becoming equally important to “click” G8397 before you file the claim and/or “click” the appropriate button when filing to their vision insurance. And sending that letter to the PCP is also good, but you have to click the button that says you sent it.
I am actively looking for buttons I am supposed to be clicking in my EHR and finding ways to start clicking them. And I have finally stopped complaining because they are not automatically clicked for me. I just have to get over this for now...Just Click It.
What are our Members Saying?
Instead of sending out another impersonal survey, I decided to try to talk to as many Leadership OD members as I could. While I didn't talk to everyone, we were able to have several conference calls and some one on one. In these calls, I wanted to better understand two things:
Which Leadership OD member services are most valuable?
What we are doing to get ready for the wave of healthcare changes?
To read my full summary of these calls, just Click Here.
Like you, I am a little nervous about the unknown of what these changes mean. But sitting around waiting for things to happen just doesn't help. Let's get busy and we will be ready.
Have a great weekend,
Mike Rothschild, Leadership OD