RLS, Mostly Harmless

Couldn’t resist re-posting this from GraphJam.com.  I read an article in Wired magazine about this site and will probably be visiting it a few times a week form now on.  They’ve got some funny, subtle graphs that worth the click!

I was taken aback this morning when I saw in my inbox a message from Angie’s List announcing the addition of medical professions to their database of consumer service provider reviews, even going as far as to offer member incentives for writing reviews.

…Angie’s List members can now submit reports on health care providers, like dentists, primary care physicians, cosmetic surgeons, chiropractors, oncologists, pediatricians and dozens of other specialties. We’re also collecting reports on hospitals, pharmacies, insurance providers and more. See the full list.

and

Sick service or a clean bill of health?

We’ve received a lot of requests from members over the years about rating healthcare services. At first we thought, “we do homes, not health.”

But then we kept thinking about it, and we realized that Angie’s List has become a well-respected destination for consumers around the country to find highly rated service companies. Why shouldn’t we extend the offering to services even closer to home?

The short answer – we should. The long answer – it will take time for these categories to become as well-stocked as roofing, plumbing or HVAC. But you can help by adding reports about everyone from your allergist to your urologist. See a full list of categories or start reporting now.

I’ve been a big fan of Angie’s List ever since I bought our condo a little while back and needed numerous recommendations for HVAC repair, movers, hardwood flooring, carpet, locksmiths, and even travel agents. These recommendations proved to be invaluable, as I have yet to be dissatisfied with any of the work I’ve had done as a result. Angie’s List is a true asset in these areas.

Crossing into healthcare, however, Angie’s List enters a very gray area as far as the actual review process and the whole idea altogether. To date, if a consumer has a dispute with a general contractor over a hardwood flooring project, the consumer can write a negative review. The contractor can then write a response to the review and can ultimately “resolve” the issue, though the negative mark still remains on the report card to one extent or another. This check and balance mechanism probably greatly reduces incidences of the occasional irate consumer who tries to “get back” at a contractor over something that might not have actually been a big deal. Healthcare providers, on the other hand, are governed by federal law, specifically the HIPAA privacy law, which ultimately leaves us defenseless against negative publicity. If a patient complains on Angie’s List that he or she didn’t like the implant I placed, by law I cannot comment on the situation because I am bound by HIPPA. In fact, I cannot even acknowledge publicly that a person is even an actual patient of mine. I’m sure the stickiness of the situation is obvious.

While great for professions that are not bound by privacy laws, I feel Angie’s List has no business including healthcare providers in their database. Stick with everything else. There’s plenty of other areas to keep us all busy. I’m interested to see where this goes.

Updates have been few and far between as of late considering how busy February was.

Valentine’s Day was a good time for our office.  We participated in Dentists with a Heart day again this year, providing care for the under served in the community.  This year was larger, as we welcomed two additional doctors to the team as well as two more hygienists.  All work was provided pro bono, a win-win situation for everyone.  That New York Times writer should take another look at events like this.

And then there was the Chicago Dental Society’s Midwinter Meeting.  That took out just about a week with the continuing education courses, special events, vendor parties, and dinners.  As usual, the fam came up from down south for the festivities, and it was nice to see some friends that haven’t been around in a while.  I think I consumer a good 5000 calories each day for a while there.  One observation I did make was the fact that although the exhibition participants were greater in number than ever before, they weren’t giving out nearly as much stuff as they have in the past.  I suspect the economic slowdown and the fact that most people still see dentistry as a discretionary expenditure might have something to do with that.  Courses were hit or miss again.  My dental forensics course all day Thursday turned out to be a waste of time.  The guy had a presentation assembled from a 1975 crime scene having almost nothing to do with teeth.  I thought he’d explain how bodies are identified, etc., but no luck.  The most entertaining part of that day was the clothes the people in the pictures were wearing.  Luckily, Friday was a much better day lecture-wise.  An all day presentation and discussion about the oral and systemic effects of street drugs was quite interesting.  It’s amazing what kids do these days.

Wedding planning I think is mostly over the best I can tell.  Now it’s just a matter of filling in the details and handing out money.  I’m for charging $180 apiece for advanced-purchase tickets and $215 at the door, but that idea hasn’t gone over well with about everyone else involved.  Until I get my way, I’m buying lotto tickets en masse.

Speaking of dinero, incidentally, Google AdSense pulled the plug on the ads I had scattered throughout this blog site.  “Suspicious clicks” they claim are to blame, but they give no explanation as to what that means.  They only acknowledge they received my appeal submission–a few months ago.    Apparently their TOS contains escape clauses where they can simply deny payment.  I find this rather convenient, since they float payment to begin with until the total amount reaches $100 US.  It took my six months to get there in the first place, and then they hold payment another month before releasing it.  Of course, just as my payment was imminent, those “suspicious clicks” ruined it for me.  Maybe it was one of those 10-year-olds who got a hold of one of the office machines or some sort of alien script.  Or, perhaps this is why Google’s stock was trading above $500 per share.  We’ll never know.

Potholes are back.  With all the extreme temperature fluctuations we’ve been having, that’s no surprise.  I’ve never seem them this BIG, though.  And they’re literally all over the place.  What surprises me is how fast these things pop up!  This one happened literally overnight and was filled with water when I hit it at 35mph.  I snapped a picture the next day so I at least have some evidence.  This one measures 5′x3′ and is about 6 inches deep.  I’m sure the problem there is obvious.  I have two bent run-flats again, and popularized as it may have been by recent TV news reports, I decided to try my chances with the city’s pothole claim program before going to State Farm.  Considering my car is AWD and has two different sizes of tires front to back, I really need to replace all four.  We’ll see if the city pays out anything.  I’m not holding my breath, but then again, I don’t want my already outrageous car insurance rate to go up even more.

Back to the office front–we’re taking the final steps towards the implementation of the electronic charting module.  Seemingly simple at first, I had absolutely no idea how incredibly-comprehensive this thing is.  Consequentially, we signed up for a series of live online courses (webinars) to train the staff more efficiently.  The courses are good for the most part, but it’s obvious who knows computers and who doesn’t and it’s even more obvious how much longer these courses take when staff members are at different levels.  I’ve got to say, though, modern online collaboration software packages have come a long, long way in just the past few years.  Desktop sharing and broadcasting is far easier than it used to be.  Scheduling for the courses has been an absolute nightmare, however.  Getting multiple people with multiple schedules to be in the same place at the same time without completely shutting the office down and still adhering to available course times is not unlike some calculus problem I forgot how to do from college.  To top it off, the training company has screwed up more than once, throwing yet another wrench into the equation.  To top it off, I have no easy way to see and verify when a staff member is scheduled other than calling the company and sitting on the phone while they login as each individual user to check scheduled times and then report back to me.  Bah!  The bulk of the classes are done now, and we’re ready to go live with the electronic charting.  Now it’s just a matter of time until we gain enough experience so that the software makes us faster and more accurate.  Until then, let’s just hope the awkward transitional period is short.

Snow and politics and the dreaded pledge drive–this pretty much summarizes the last few weeks.  The media continues to sensationalize the fact that we get snow in Chicago (Really?  Who knew?), and their constant stream of live broadcasts showing reporters on Interstate overpasses “bracing for the impact of yet another city-binding blizzard” continue to annoy the hell out of me.  Of course then it doesn’t snow much or even do much of anything, and you get the “yeah sorry, but HERE COMES ANOTHER CITY-BINDING WINTER STORM,” story.  And when they’re not talking about the snow, it’s the #$@% Democratic primary.  It’s not even election season!!!  I can’t stand Hillary, and there aren’t any Republican candidates I like.  That leaves Barrack.  Key word there–LEAVE.  Leave it alone until election time!  I don’t want to hear anything more about it!  And just when the pre-election stories are over and they’re ready to talk about something else, Public Radio starts their pledge drive.  I’m going to stop here.

With the new city wide smoking ban in public places, restaurants, and bars, etc., these poor souls have to brave the weather in the middle of the parking lot to catch a cigarette break.  I think the designated area is where it is because of the rules keeping any smoking area XX feet away from any entrance, but I’m not sure.  Regardless, this shows them out there at 7:30am with a -10 wind chill.  Now that’s dedication. And this place is usually packed.  I should go sell hot dogs out there.