Your staff can make or break you. Primary care practices generally spend over 50% of their overhead on staff. Here are some tips for making sure you are getting the most for your investment.

These days, every dollar counts. Here are our top tips for making sure you collect what you are owed. A few simple steps can make a big difference in your bottom line.

You really don't have to accept every manager care contract that comes your way, even if it means losing patients. Know your costs to choose right.

Your front desk staff create the first impression for your patients. Make sure they play the role well.

A 33-year-old man seeks attention for his abnormal toenails, having already failed full treatment courses of both terbinafine and itraconazole. Review of systems reveals complaints of painful “eye irritation” as well as chronic low back pain severe enough to warrant daily ingestion of aspirin. What diagnoses in addition to onychomycosis would you consider given this picture? Please click here and add your comments.

Staff handle your checks and co-pays. Are you sure they aren't stealing from you? Don't chance it; manage it.

Swelling and redness have progressed over the past 16 hours in this 5-month-old boy. Would you consider child abuse in your differential diagnosis? We invite your comments. Click here for details.

As technological advances in medicine have progressed from the measurement of temperature to the ability to test for genetic factors that can predispose to disease, physicians have sought objective measures for their patient’s problems. When it comes to pain, however-the most common complaint that drives patients to see doctors-we still rely on the subjective report of the individual patient as the primary measure.

1.  Giovannucci E, Stampfer MJ, Krithivas K, et al. The CAG repeat within the androgen receptor gene and its relationship to prostate cancer. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 1997;94(7):3320-3323

For the past 20 years, I have been visiting developing nations to deliver healthcare. Recently, I made a conscious decision to look for a case of child abuse to write about. Late in 2011, during one of my visits to a third world country, I encountered multiple situations that rose to the level of possible child abuse. Here, I describe 3 such cases.

Is obesity really leading to an increase in GERD? Or, has GERD just become a catch-all phrase for all sorts of upper GI distress? Has GERD become the new "dyspepsia"? G. Richard Locke, MD, FACG, from the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, discusses his findings as presented at the ACG 2011 program.

Prevalence for overweight (BMI 24.9 to 29.9) and obesity (BMI > 30) have been steadily rising for the past 30 years-two-thirds of Americans now qualify as overweight or heavier. Hypertension, hyperlipidemia, coronary artery disease, type 2 diabetes, sleep apnea, and GERD prevalence are following this epidemic. Obesity is now the second most common preventable cause of death, exceeded only by smoking.

Compare your salary, bonus structure, overhead ratio, and career plans with those of your peers, using this exclusive research by ConsultantLive

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