The MGMA Performance and Practices of Successful Medical Groups: 2015 Report Based on 2015 Data recently identified DFD Russell Medical Center with their highest form of recognition as a “better performer” for excellence in four performance-management categories including: profitability and cost management; productivity, capacity and staffing; accounts receivable and collections; and patient satisfaction. Culled from more than 2,500 respondents to the MGMA 2015 Cost Survey, DFD Russell was compared with similar medical group practices nationwide and received special designation.
In an ever-shifting healthcare environment, DFD Russell was recognized by MGMA for actively monitoring operating costs, efficiently collecting accounts receivables, meeting and exceeding the needs of its clients through innovative, patient-centered primary care services and providing outstanding staff support. Operationally, DFD Russell strives to be most effective by organizing care around patients – utilizing an electronic medical record system to enhance quality of treatment, conducting patient satisfaction surveys, working in teams to benchmark performance and tracking changes over time.
Todd Evenson, MGMA Vice President of Data Solutions & Consulting Services says, “Medical Practices that actively monitor their operating costs and use benchmarking data and tools to assess their performance are positioned for long-term success and sustainability.”
DFD Russell has been committed to patient-focused care and operational excellence since its founding in 1975. It is one of nearly 1200 community health centers nationwide; together these centers provide care to more than 20 million people. As a partially federally funded health center, DFD serves many low-income, often-uninsured patients in addition to the general public. The federal government has recently begun measuring multi-specialty practices (clinical quality measures) to ensure strong provider productivity and determine whether patients are getting appropriate care.
This is not the first recognition DFD Russell has received for its commitment to quality, personalized care, and long-term fiscal success. Last year, DFD achieved the same MGMA ‘better performer’ designation. In 2013 & 2014, DFD was honored with the Highest Ranking Community Health Center in Maine & the Nation. Quality Counts and HRSA awarded DFD with a High Quality/Low Cost distinction for 2014. DFD is also NCQA (National Committee for Quality Assurance) recognized as a Patient-Centered Medical Home and for excellence in diabetes and heart/stroke care. Additionally, the health center was acknowledged by Bridges to Excellence, an organization that recognizes and rewards clinicians who deliver superior patient care.
Richard Fochtmann, a DFD patient and longtime board member comments, “The role of the medical center has changed from being the office practice of a few doctors, to a Medical Home that provides for many of its patients’ needs – physical, mental, and lifestyle – for the purpose of making all of its patients healthier while keeping medical costs to a minimum. As a DFD patient, I am able to get an appointment the same day, even on weekends and holidays, my blood pressure is controlled as I age, and I feel that I am in good hands. As a board member, I know that part of that award for excellence was based on patient satisfaction. I can see a counselor, take classes for smoking cessation, help with diabetes monitoring, and a host of other things that one either had no access to, or that one had to find a specialist for in the past. I think I am much healthier as a result of the changes.”
The MGMA report, a standard among medical groups for more than a decade, was produced using data from respondents to the MGMA Cost Survey: 2015 Report Based on 2014 Data as well as data from a questionnaire that assessed management behaviors, practices and procedures of better performers. The report profiles medical practices that have demonstrated success in one or more areas: profitability and cost management; productivity, capacity and staffing; accounts receivable and collections; and patient satisfaction.
About MGMA
The Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) helps create successful medical practices that deliver the highest-quality patient care. As the leading association for medical practice administrators and executives since 1926, MGMA helps improve members’ practices through exclusive member benefits, education, resources, news, information, advocacy, and networking opportunities, and produces some of the most credible and robust medical practice economic data and data solutions in the industry, MGMA advances the profession of medical practice management with its industry-leading board certification and Fellowship programs through the American College of Medical Practice Executives.
Throughout its national membership and 50 state affiliates, MGMA represents more than 33,000 medical practice administrators and executives in practices of all sizes, types, structures and specialties. MGMA is headquartered in Englewood, Colo., with a Government Affairs office in Washington, D.C.
