When it Rains it Pours

While driving from Garland, Texas to Brentwood, Tennessee today, it didn't just rain, it poured. The down pouring of rain made the longest segment of the entire trip across the U.S. feel even longer. At times, the rain made it difficult to see where I was going requiring me to slow down to stay the course.

I arrived at the Spheris headquarters just before the five o'clock whistle blew, to meet with Spheris Chief Medical Officer, Christopher Rehm, MD. He too, has just experienced the "when it rains, it pours" phenomenon - his wife delivered their second set of twin boys six weeks ago. Their first set of twin boys are only three years old. They're working out feeding, sleeping, bathing, and diapering schedules while negotiating the developmental challenges of their toddlers. It was never said, but I'm sure they had to slow down their schedules to readjust with the new family additions in order to stay balanced, healthy, and happy.

You could probably also say that it's not just raining but pouring in the clinical documentation sector when it comes to the changes we're experiencing. It's coming down on all sides: cost containment, increased client expectations, faster turnaround times, new technologies, greater regulatory requirements, and stiffer competition. Christopher and I spent some time discussing the multitude of challenges facing the sector and what it will take to stay the course. It was interesting to learn that the Chief Medical Officer role at Spheris actually helps the company stay the course, slow down in a sense to understand and evaluate what's important to the client - the end user clinician. If we don't know what the customer wants and help them to better discern what's best for them in the long run, we can't build our businesses - whether that business is a small, medium, or large transcription company, or if it's producing short, intermediate, or long transcription documents, or serving the needs of members at the local, state, or national level.

670 miles driven today
2,471 total miles driven