Physicians Practice, Wolfson Children's Hospital to help doctors manage patient care in Jacksonville area

Physicians Practice and Wolfson Children's Hospital have joined forces to help provide area physicians and their staff more time to devote to patient care. This new partnership is a unique program designed to help doctors in the Jacksonville area better handle the cumbersome and time-consuming issues of managing a busy practice. Through this new alliance, Wolfson Children's Hospital 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, Wolfson Children's Hospital will sponsor the distribution of Physicians Practice journal to approximately 1,885 local doctors in pediatrics in the Jacksonville area. Physicians Practice will be mailed monthly, beginning in July/August 2010, and will serve to help physicians and their office staff address the numerous challenges faced by today's medical practices. The journal will also feature a section sponsored and written by Wolfson Children's Hospital highlighting the hospital's latest clinical offerings as well as articles of interest to physicians 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.

"We are so excited about this opportunity to reach out to our physician partners in the community who are caring for the same children Wolfson Children's Hospital serves," says Jerry Bridgham, MD, Chief Medical Officer of Wolfson Children's Hospital. "We hope they will enjoy hearing about what's going on at Wolfson Children's and how we can work together for the benefit of children."

"It is great to be able to partner with Wolfson Children's Hospital to bring practice management information and resources directly to Jacksonville area physicians," says Marcy Holeton, Senior Vice President and General Manager of UBM Medica US. "Our expertise in practice management and technology will help Wolfson Children's Hospital medical practices to spend less time on business and more time with patients."