Marshfield Clinic, Physicians Practice join forces to enhance patient care

Physicians Practice and Marshfield Clinic have joined forces to help provide area physicians, other providers, and their staff more time to devote to patient care. This new partnership is a unique program designed to help doctors in Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan better handle the cumbersome and time-consuming issues of managing a busy practice. Through this new alliance, Marshfield Clinic will use Physicians Practice's extensive resources to deliver essential practice management tools to help local physicians manage the business aspects of medicine more efficiently and effectively.

Physicians' need for practice management information is an ever-increasing one. According to PricewaterhouseCoopers, every hour a physician spends with a patient results in 36 minutes of paperwork. Additionally, the cost of running a medical practice has increased and now consumes as much as 62 percent of the revenue (2007 Medical Group Management Association Cost Survey), while reimbursement continues to decline from year to year (2006 and 2007 Physicians Practice Fee Schedule Surveys). Furthermore, according to the 2008 Future Physicians of America Survey, nearly 70 percent of medical students do not feel adequately prepared for managing or owning a practice in the future.

Under their new partnership, Marshfield Clinic will sponsor the distribution of Physicians Practice journal to approximately 2,200 local health care providers in Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula. Physicians Practice is mailed monthly, beginning in November 2010, and serves to help physicians and their office staff address the numerous challenges faced by today's medical practices. The journal also features a section sponsored and written by Marshfield Clinic highlighting the physician group practice's latest clinical offerings as well as articles of interest to providers in the region. The partnership with Physicians Practice will also provide digital resources to local physicians including practice management e-newsletters and access to PhysiciansPractice.com, a comprehensive practice management Web site.

"Marshfield Clinic shares the commitment of Wisconsin and Upper Peninsula physicians to provide high quality patient care," said Karl Ulrich, M.D., M.M.M., Marshfield Clinic president and CEO. "We are delighted to help Physicians Practice provide informative and useful articles and free services to help them succeed."

"It is great to be able to partner with Marshfield Clinic to bring practice management information and resources directly to Wisconsin and Upper Peninsula physicians," says Marcy Holeton, Senior Vice President and General Manager of UBM Medica US. "Our expertise in practice management and technology will help Marshfield Clinic medical practices to spend less time on business and more time with patients."