Eyeworld

46 | EYEWORLD | SEPTEMBER 2020 I NSIDE THE PRACTICE by John Pinto and Corinne Wohl, MHSA, COE imposed on providers; they are mostly in the forms of written reports and documents. So-called "accountability documents" help to keep people accountable. Here are 10 common ones. Many of these may already be present in your practice but may also be in need of improvements or updating. Some may be absent. Ask yourself, "Would our practice be better run with this one or that one in place?" 1. Human resources manual: This is the old standby, so common that it's often draft- ed, signed off on, and forgotten for years. Owners and managers alike should reread their personnel manual annually, asking themselves "Are we following this? Are any of these standing policies in need of a change?" 2. Job descriptions: We still come across practices on the verge of making a new staff hire but with no written job descrip- tion to guide the selection. Keeping job P hysicians, partly by choice, mostly by higher authorities, are almost com- pletely hemmed in by a structure of accountability. Medical records oblige providers to assert an opinion about what's wrong with a patient and how their problem should be treated and documents that the prescribed course of action has been taken. Surgical notes force a doctor to create a legal record of what they did and how the case turned out. Doctors are accountable to third-party payers through billing records that can be audited and declined—even send you to prison. So much for nailing down accountability in the professional half of your practice. But what about the other half—the business half ? As an owner and the ultimate beneficiary (or victim) of staff performance, do you enjoy the same confidence in your managers as your patients and society at large have in you? The heart of business—like the heart of medicine—is accountability. And in business, the tools used to assure accountability share much in common with the accountability tools Increasing business discipline with 'accountability documents' continued on page 48 About the authors John Pinto President J. Pinto & Associates San Diego, California Corinne Wohl, MHSA, COE President C. Wohl & Associates San Diego, California

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