Welcome to Operations-Management-in-Healthcare Web Site!

My name is Christiana Domingos. Between 1994 and 1996, I was freelancing providing computer services to doctor's offices, filing electronic medical claims and preparing accreditation papers. I could not get over how much the doctors had to do and the regulations they had to know and how little help there was. The doctors saw the patients and everything else kind of fit around that. It was all they could do to keep it going. I know some of the doctors wanted to institute some kind of practice management software but frankly did not have the time to do the research and make the decision. So they just kept putting it off.

I could not really help them then. After several years of designing, coding and implementing computer systems, I longed for more day-to-day human interaction in my job and had become involved with computer applications in healthcare. I was enjoying the work but I was struggling with medical terminologies and I didn’t really know what a doctor’s office should be looking for in a software package.

I was frustrated with my limited knowledge. My growing frustration led me first to take classes in medical and pharmaceutical terminologies, then to take a one-year course in medical practice management at the community college and eventually to get a degree in Health Information Management from George Mason University in Virginia.

A few years ago when I was still working towards my degree in Health Information Management, a friend introduced me to a doctor with a solo practice in a small town for possible part-time employment. His office was very busy and we talked between patients. He lamented about needing to network the computers in the office, upgrade the software and where he was going to find time and resources to do all that and implement HIPAA mandates. Because of my knowledge of HIPAA, he wanted to hire me but concluded he could not afford to pay me. He said he could only afford to pay minimal wage to a high-school graduate who would be there the whole day. HIPAA compliance date was looming close and he was not ready and needed help but could not afford competent help. At first I thought surely he jests – but as I have conducted surveys and interviewed doctors on HIPAA in the last 3 years I find that in small medical practices, squeezed by HMO's, insurance companies and government regulations, the same feeling of “where can we go to get help without talking to someone who is trying to sell us something.” Alas! Things have not changed much in a doctor’s office.

With my experience and unique perspective of medical practices, I know the frustrations associated with finding the right source of information for all the myriad things you have to know to keep a doctor’s office running smoothly (or even to be viable). So where can a small practice go to get help?

Operations Management in Healthcare was founded to develop practical ways to help solo and small group medical practices run more efficiently by bringing them as much assistance and support as possible.

If your practice is in need of information and resources, especially on software and on HIPAA...

Welcome! You have come to the right place!

~Christiana

Back to top of page