One key to practice growth: improving other practice encounters

Practice growth is related to more than the encounter between the patient and physician. Those other practice contacts and exposures involving the staff, the bill, and the medical office environment can impact a medical group practice's growth. At CMC, initiatives taken by its leadership to address these encounter points have contributed to the reduction of patient dissatisfaction. These initiatives have also contributed to other efforts, including accreditation of CMC by the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Health Care Organizations. Most importantly, these steps have led to a real change in CMC's community image. The results from a recently compiled patient satisfaction survey, while hardly scientific, showed high patient satisfaction with all major elements of the practice, including the physicians, the staff, the patient bills, and the medical office environment.