BUSINESS

PRACTICES

BUSINESS

PRACTICES

PRIVACY

The foundation of a trusting patient-doctor relationship.

What could be a more obvious violation of privacy than the humble sign-in sheet, a permanent fixture in most doctors’ offices? A list of the first and last name of every patient who’s been in the office all day, right there on a clipboard, ready to be used — or misused — by anybody who happens by.

Shouldn’t your doctor protect your information at least as well as a private banker? Needless to say, we don’t use a sign-in sheet. Instead, we use strong security practices to protect our patients’ identities and health information. Such as:

5
Ongoing HIPAA privacy training for all staff
5
Secure, password-protected email for those patients who so desire
5
All vendors, including maintenance and hazardous waste disposal, monitored by a staff member at all times when on our premises
5
Health documents locked away at night, not left on desks (trust us: this is unusual for a medical practice)
5
Payment information stored securely
5
White-noise generators in the ceiling and soundproof glass in the reception area are strategically placed to reduce the chance of accidentally overheard conversations
5
Intruder alarm, security cameras, and locked cabinets are used to secure the physical premises
5
Enterprise-grade firewall and encryption to secure data

IT’S WHAT WE KNOW AND WHO WE KNOW

We’re two doctors, two nurses, and two support staff in Denver, Colorado. Yet The Sheldon Sowell Center for Health has national reach, referring patients to medical centers around the country when we feel it’s warranted.

One of the most frustrating and limiting features of insurance-based medicine is having to figure out which hospitals and specialists are in-network and which are out-of-network. So we created our own “Insider’s Network” of those we consider the best in town. And, we’re continuously improving it, interviewing physicians weekly to be sure they’re the kind of people to whom we can entrust our patients’ care.

TALK TO A DOC

FAQ: DO YOU PROVIDE EXECUTIVE PHYSICALS?

You could say that everything we do is an executive physical: an integrated series of procedures, documents, communication technologies, and most importantly, relationships — all designed to provide important information to our busy patients.

A typical “executive physical,” however, is supposed to save time by being a one-shot deal: get in, get tested, get out.

Which must sound attractive to a busy executive. Until something happens.

What’s missing from this picture is the very thing you need for a successful doctor-patient relationship: the doctor-patient relationship. By design, the executive physical lacks the follow-up that we provide — the ability to efficiently make decisions based on your history and evolving conditions.

Don’t worry, we’ll never waste your time. Some of our patients visit our office as little as once per year. But they know that when they need us, we’ll be here for them. Simply put, an executive physical is not a physician. We are.

“Drs. Jonathan Sheldon and Heather Sowell embody the ideal of the thoughtful, engaged, caring and trustworthy physician.” — Denver Urologist

MEDICAL RECORDS

Why they matter, and why ours are better.

For all the technological marvels at our fingertips, it’s amazing that when it comes to record-keeping, modern medicine has barely advanced beyond wax tablets and wooden stylii.

Handwriting — still, sadly, the medium of choice for some doctors — is subject to interpretation errors that can cause delays… or worse. Even doctors who have adopted electronic charts get bogged down in the boilerplate that the software provider stuffs into the system, making it hard for colleagues to pick out the parts that are clinically important.

While the federal government is making a big push for widespread adoption of electronic medical records, we didn’t need to be told: our records are 100% electronic. They’re legible, concise, and secure, so that if you ever need hospitalization or opt to receive primary care elsewhere, another doctor can quickly get up to speed. In fact, when we begin working with new patients, we gather notes from all their previous providers to create a centralized record that’s easy to locate, easy to use, and easy (with your authorization) to share.

They’re your records, of course, so if you want a copy, just ask and we’ll provide them by email, CD, or thumb drive.

CONTACT US

WHY COMPUTERS ARE INTEGRAL TO OUR PRACTICE

Six people work at The Sheldon Sowell Center for Health: two physicians, two Registered Nurses, a patient experience specialist, and, unusually, an information technology specialist. We thought you might like to know why we consider I.T. such an integral part of this practice that we created a full-time position for it.

The reason is that information is a physician’s work product. We collect it, we analyze it, and, in collaboration with the patient and specialists if required, we base decisions on it. Knowing when and with whom to share information is critical to outcomes.

It used to be something of a joke that doctors had notoriously bad handwriting. Talk about dark humor! Illegible notes could put patients at risk by causing delays and errors. The advent of electronic health records should have put an end to such miscommunications, but a whole new set of problems arose when non-interoperable systems began hitting the market. With their emphasis on checkboxes rather than narrative, many of these systems make it nearly impossible to explain, doctor-to-doctor, just what is going on with the patient.

HOME
WHO WE ARE
WHAT YOU GET


Fax: 303-789-7495
1780 South Bellaire Street #700
Denver, CO 80222

BLOG
CONTACT

 


Fax: 303-789-7495
1780 South Bellaire Street #700
Denver, CO 80222