What Works: Effective Tools & Case Studies to Improve Clinical Office Practice [Paperback]

Suzanne Houck (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0970718713 | ISBN-13: 978-0970718716 | Publication Date: April 2004 | Edition: 1

What Works is a practical guide to implementing sustainable improvement in outpatient care and physician practices. From the improving access to the impact of core values and streamlining key processes, the reader will find step-by-step strategies to guide change. Case studies provide hands-on experience from a variety of sites. Visual tools help to make intangible processes easier to see and compare. What works also highlights useful tools for "seeing" and managing the patient experience. From smoothing patient flow to improving access and removing delays, the reader will find useful ideas to improve operational, satisfaction, and financial outcomes.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Suzanne Houck is a nationally recognized healthcare consultant and trainer working with physician groups, hospitals and integrated delivery networks. An experienced healthcare manager, nurse practitioner, author, and speaker, Houck currently serves as president of the consulting firm Houck & Associates, Inc. in Boulder, Colorado. She holds a masters in business adminstration and has a deep interest in workable solutions to the challenges facing healthcare today.

Product Details

• Paperback: 151 pages
• Publisher: HealthPress Publishing; 1 edition (April 2004)
• ISBN-10: 0970718713
• ISBN-13: 978-0970718716
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,572,347 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Invaluable Guide to Transforming Medical Office Practices, May 21, 2011

By 

Bo Greaves - See all my reviews

This review is from: What Works: Effective Tools & Case Studies to Improve Clinical Office Practice (Paperback)

Sue Houck gives us a great guide for medical office practice leaders in the 21st Century. "What Works" is written in language that resonates with, and is easily accessible to managers, who often "rise through the ranks" in an office, with little formal training in how to manage and lead an office. This book guides the reader on a path out of the current frenetic race that exists in most medical offices to solve the dozens of daily crises and problems. And this guidebook gives concrete directions of how to arrive at the destination: efficient, integrated and coordinated offices, where the main focus is on the important, not the urgent.

Across the country, primary care medical practices are working to transform HOW we deliver care to our patients. Ms. Houck's book has provided me & other family physician practice leaders, as well as our office managers and staff, very practical and concrete direction. This book helps you understand balancing patient demand with practice capacity, and how to increase capacity through improvements in efficiency. Ms. Houck gives us practical advice about getting to advanced access, offering group visits, about doing continuous quality improvement, and about improving the patient experience. All of this rests upon a foundation of engaging the clinicians and staff from the very beginning; Ms. Houck clearly understands that transformation is more about a journey that includes everyone than it is about the end result.

I would strongly recommend "What Works" to any primary care physician leader or office manager interested in building a strong office practice that delivers great results, year after year. I have given a copy of this book to all the managers in my health center, and they are finding it an invaluable guide as we work to our goal of becoming a patient centered medical home.