Steve Berkowitz

The Solution to Patient or Referral “Leakage” Lies in Empowering Primary Care Increasingly, the primary care physician is tasked with the challenge of better utilizing services and specialists currently in their own medical group or network. Reasons to internalize care include the implementation of capitation or other risk products, payor-imposed narrower networks, and the need… Continue Reading >>

Steve Berkowitz

The Critical Role of Medical Succession Planning

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Steve Berkowitz

PROMOTING LEADERSHIP BENCH STRENGTH IN YOUR MEDICAL GROUP: THE CRITICAL ROLE OF SUCCESSION PLANNING There is no doubt that there is a need for more physician leadership depth in health care. In the past, there truly was a physician leadership void. Most physicians entered the medical field with the goal of practicing excellent clinical medicine—which… Continue Reading >>

Steve Berkowitz

The War Against Preventable Medical Errors

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Steve Berkowitz

Preventing Medical Errors: An SOS to Artificial Intelligence It has been almost 25 years since the shocking landmark study from the Institute of Medicine “To Err is Human” (1999). It stated that preventable errors were responsible for up to 100,000 deaths in the USA each year. It was mind-boggling to imagine how much harm our well-intended… Continue Reading >>

Steve Berkowitz

What the Doctor Says Versus What the Patient Hears

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Steve Berkowitz

Positive Steps to Decrease the Doctor-Patient Communication Gap Communication is an essential part of the doctor-patient relationship (and the doctor-doctor relationship for that matter). Without effective communication, the doctor-patient relationship simply does not exist. Understandably, it can be one of the most challenging aspects of maintaining a healthy relationship and achieving the optimal clinical outcome…. Continue Reading >>

Steve Berkowitz

Take the Opportunity for Education and Developing Respect I was talking to a hospital Chief Medical Officer (CMO) recently who related the following story: A patient on post-operative day 2 suddenly developed a brief seizure that was witnessed by the attending physician. The physician elected to treat the patient conservatively and the patient did well… Continue Reading >>

Steve Berkowitz

Improving Physician to Physician Communication

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Steve Berkowitz

For Effective Physician to Physician Communication, Direct Is Best I must admit that I am getting more impressed with the ability of the various electronic medical records’ (EMR) ability to capture and transfer information. Slowly but surely, the profession is integrating the individual EMRs that hospitals and physicians have independently acquired, and are gradually developing… Continue Reading >>

Steve Berkowitz

What Is the Future of AI in Healthcare? In my previous blog I discussed the first step in the critical analysis of artificial intelligence in healthcare—an operational or working definition of artificial intelligence. I would now like to take that definition and take the next step—develop a descriptive model of AI that would illustrate the… Continue Reading >>