JOHN SHUFELDT, MD, JD, MBA, FACEP In this challenging financial market, in this space (urgent care medicine), should bankruptcy be something with which you are overly concerned? The answer is an unequivocal, “yes!” Urgent care ownership is not for the faint of heart or the short of capital. As a friend of mine said, “This business has a lot of moving parts and misfiring on any one of them can cause your business to be …
Read MoreToward a Happier World: The Art of Patient Service
JOHN SHUFELDT, MD, JD, MBA, FACEP Customer service is a trendy theme in virtually every business these days. However, the gap between “woulda, shoulda, coulda” and reality is invariably significant. Simply put, the concept of customer service is given universal lip service, but it is rarely incorporated into the fabric of an urgent care clinic. An effective patient service program requires five core elements: planning, training, execution, evaluation, and reward/recognition.
Read MoreBankruptcy: When BK Doesn’t Mean You Can Have It Your Way
JOHN SHUFELDT, MD, JD, MBA, FACEP My favorite movie—other than Wedding Crashers, of course—is It’s a Wonderful Life. I watch it every Christmas. One of the most memorable scenes is where Uncle Billy misplaces the envelope containing the deposits. Once George realizes the gravity of the situation, he confronts Uncle Billy: “Where’s that money, you stupid old fool? Where’s that money? Do you realize what this means? It means bankruptcy and scandal and prison, that’s …
Read MoreSend Lawyers, Guns and Money: Asset Protection for Providers and Urgent Care Owners
JOHN SHUFELDT, MD, JD, MBA, FACEP Although I am sure I have been described as an Excitable Boy, God knows I am no Warren Zevon. However, ol’ Warren correctly described the mindset of most providers and business owners when their personal assets are attached to a judgment. This article tackles the complex subject of asset protection. When an acquaintance of mine (an attorney) learned that he was going to be named in a suit alleging …
Read MoreThere Will be Blood: Key Reasons That Start-ups Fail
JOHN SHUFELDT, MD, JD, MBA, FACEP In the movie There Will be Blood, character Henry Brands says, “That part of me is gone…working and not succeeding—all my failures has [sic] left me….I just don’t… care.” At the end, after the struggles, “I don’t care” is a common aphorism of the wanton entrepreneur. Maybe it is uttered during the futile death throes of the dying business. Or, maybe after leaving the bank president’s office. I suppose …
Read MoreThe “O-Ring” in Medical Malpractice Cases
JOHN SHUFELDT, MD, JD, MBA, FACEP The moment is forever etched in my mind. It occurred while I was in my fourth year of medical school during a radiology rotation in Scottsdale, AZ. I was doing everything I could not to fall asleep while sitting in the dark film-reading room, listening to a tonally flat radiologist dictate plain film reports. I got up to splash some cold water on my face and as I was …
Read MoreWhat the Gray Haired Never Shared
JOHN SHUFELDT, MD, JD, MBA, FACEP For some reason, it is likely that no one with gray hair ever sat you down and shared with you some secrets to longevity, productivity, and career success in medicine. Why we in medicine tend to “eat our young” remains a mystery to me. If you have seen the movie 300 or read the book Gates of Fire, you understand that we tend to act very “Spartan-like.” I am …
Read MoreInsulating Your Practice from Sexual Harassment Claims
JOHN SHUFELDT, MD, JD, MBA, FACEP Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of Law describes sexual harassment as a form of employment discrimination consisting of unwelcome verbal or physical conduct directed at an employee because of his or her sex. Quid pro quo sexual harassment occurs when a condition of future or current employment is predicated upon fulfilling sexual demands. Finally, hostile environment sexual harassment occurs when the harassment has the effect of interfering with the victim’s work performance …
Read MoreIn Consideration of Binding Arbitration Agreements
JOHN SHUFELDT, MD, JD, MBA, FACEP Otter: Point of parliamentary procedure! Hoover: Don’t screw around, they’re serious this time! Otter: Take it easy, I’m pre-law. Boon: I thought you were pre-med. Otter: What’s the difference? Otter: Ladies and gentlemen, I’ll be brief. The issue here is not whether we broke a few rules, or took a few liberties with our female party guests—we did. In contrast to the dispute resolution procedure regarding the Delta house’s …
Read MoreCompliant Management of Non-Compliant Staff
JOHN SHUFELDT, MD, JD, MBA, FACEP Are you from the era where Spare the Rod, Spoil the Employee was the title of the disciplinary section in the employee manual? Most urgent care centers in the United States discontinued the practice of caning employees after Michael Fay received his licks for vandalizing cars in Singapore in 1994. Now-a-days, you may want to consider following a few simple rules when it comes to employee remediation (as opposed …
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