Running a scaling, multi-location practice means time is your most valuable asset. We know you don't have hours to scour the web for industry news, so we've hand-picked insights for you.
From why two decades of software spending never showed up in productivity to what happens when a patient switches languages halfway through describing their pain, here are the most actionable reads you need to stay ahead this week.
You have added tools and headcount, and throughput looks about the same. Over two decades, labor productivity at clinical-care organizations slipped roughly 1 percent while the broader US services economy gained more than 55 percent, on over $150 billion a year in IT spending. The diagnosis is software layered onto workflows nobody redesigned first. Redesign is the prerequisite, not the follow-up. (via McKinsey)
Every vendor demo looks impressive. That is the problem. Model quality is the wrong comparison. What matters is whether a tool can be governed, traced, and validated for the one workflow you are putting it in, with oversight scaled to that workflow's risk. You should be able to reconstruct later what the tool did and who signed off. (via Healthcare IT News)
Some of your patients switch languages mid-sentence as they describe their pain. Nearly 26 million people in the US have limited English proficiency. Scribes built for code-switching keep producing one coherent note through the switch, with the clinician reviewing and approving the draft. Worth asking any vendor you are evaluating how it handles that moment. (via HIT Consultant)
A breakdown of what in the name of AI you should actually be paying attention to: AI-native healthcare and the human-agent workforce
“AI-native healthcare” may sound impressive, but the key takeaway is clear: AI works best with clean, connected, and usable data. Winning companies won’t just add agents to chaotic systems. They’ll redesign workflows so humans and AI can collaborate safely and effectively.
Verdict: ✅ Worth paying attention to
When churn shows up, the instinct is to buy something. A better phone system, a scheduling tool, a voice agent to catch the calls nobody is picking up.
Jerry Durham built a seven-figure out-of-network practice when his peers told him it couldn't be done, and he puts technology last on purpose. People first: patients are consumers making a purchase decision, not a different species. Process second: qualify the caller before booking them. Tools only after that.
He fed his own qualification process into an AI voice agent and loved what came back. Then he heard other operators running the same platform on top of no process at all. "AI needs people more than it needs a platform," Durham says. A tool inherits whatever process you hand it, including the one that isn't working.
Durham's full breakdown of the people-process-technology hierarchy, and why he would rather prevent the cancellation call than scramble to fill the slot, is worth the read.
Thanks for joining us for another edition of Practice Independence — we’ll see you next week!
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