SOAPM

Short of riding the mechanical bulls on Bourbon Street, I think we fulfilled our social requirements at the AAP NCE this week.  I starting making a list of people I got to greet, but gave up after 50.  And it always remains a treat to meet people I've only known virtually - thanks for introducing yourselves.

In years past, I have gone through the entire NCE schedule and highlighted the talks or meetings I had hoped to crash.  This year, Jose Lopez (the manager of the SOAPM section), put this awesome handout together.

This puts my work to shame.

I had planned to write about the 5010 software upgrade scam today, but this topic takes precedence!

10/17/11, 8:30-11:30pm, Kinsale Irish Pub, Boston

The official invite.

I'm just going to call it the "SOAPM party."  We can pretend it's all formal and official, but the fact is that it's simply a lot of fun even when the SOAPM executive committee members are dancing on the tables.

If you're going to the NCE, come join us on Saturday night, the info is below.  We can then stumble over to the official SOAPM dinner a few blocks away.

It doesn't take much besides a change in title to turn a PCC Users' Conference into an impromptu SOAPM gathering.  I took some quick shots of well known SOAPM contributors cooling off before heading out to dinner...can you name them all?

[click to enlarge]

[Most of this blog was originally 'penned' live from the NCE, but a conspiracy of time-consuming events - namely, dining out with Friends of PCC - kept me from completing it on time.]

I'm seated at our booth (1827 I think), debriefing myself about yesterday's events. Whew, busy time.  We must have 2x more staff here than at any show I can remember, but it's not enough to get to it all.  I missed the Offitt talk!

Highlights:

- Dr. Zarin wins the Buzzy award, excellent choice. Proud to support the award.

One of my little birdies mentioned discussions on the SOAPM mailing list about new patient benchmarks - what kind of visit volume should be focused on new visits?

Although, on a practice by practice basis, it's difficult to determine what these figures should be, having the benchmarks can help. Here they are:

I interrupt all my work bring two important announcements for those who haven't heard. First, news from the AAP national:

After receiving my third invite to a $450 "Learn What the ARRA Funding Will Do For You" seminar this week, I've decided to run a piece I wrote for the SOAPM newsletter that was released a few weeks ago.  Of course, you can become a SOAPM member and get these messages (and better/more!) a lot sooner - $30 a year.  Do it.

The Fall SOAPM newsletter has been out for a bit and yours truly did a piece on concierge medicine.  I have a fun follow-up  to it, too!  Make sure you join SOAPM - it’s only $30/year - to get the rest of the newsletter…

The State of Pediatric Concierge Medicine