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"E VERY INVESTMENT INVOLVES RISK" IS BOILERPL ATE L ANGUAGE IN FINANCE © BUT NOT ALL RISK IS EQUAL. The Perils of Startups BY STEVE BARRETT P H Y SI C I A N S SH A R E D F IN A N C I A L m i s t a k e s w it h Me d s c a p e, r a n g i n g from Martha Stewart Living stock that f lopped to a n investment proper ty that cou ld not be developed to cat t le t hat somebody promptly rustled. A popula r stop on the path to distress was a n ill- advised investment in a sta r tup. " We put a la rge i nvest ment i nto a sta r t up clot hing compa ny t hat went ba nkrupt," one physicia n la mented. "I did get a nice T-shir t, though." A medica l school friend persuaded a nother to sin k money into a sta r tup that was actua lly fraudulent. Technolog y was no safe haven, either. One provider lost money in a new EHR compa ny that met a n untimely demise. Q ua i nt bist ros t hat wou nd up not becom i n g a l l t he ra ge were a not her source of miser y — pa in compounded by t he fact t hat ma ny such vent ures i nvolve d pa r t ner s h ip s w it h fa m i ly a nd friends. Still, sta r tups ca n succeed for phy- sicia ns who do t hei r homework . For exa mple, u nderst a nd i n g ow nersh ip structure is vital, Kathy Stepp, a founder of Ka nsa s-ba sed f ina ncia l pla n ning f irm Stepp & Rothwell, told Medscape. " The genera l pa r tner usua l ly get s to ma ke a ll of the decisions, including how t he i ncome a nd a ny prof it s a re distributed," Stepp says. "As a minority partner, you may have no say in any thing at a ll." ■ MEDICAL SCRIBES May Lower ER Costs MEDICAL SCRIBES IN ERs COULD REDUCE PHYSICIAN OVERTIME, ACCORDING TO A UNIVERSIT Y OF COLOR ADO DENVER STUDY PUBLISHED IN THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF HEALTH ECONOMICS. H AV IN G S C R IBE S O N H A N D in ERs to prepare patients' medical charts markedly decreases the time physicians spend on that task after their shifts end, yielding signifi cant savings, the study fi nds. Further, scribes cut down on wait times in the ER by approximately 13 minutes per patient. "Scribes are relatively new to the medical fi eld, and not much is known about how they infl uence healthcare production," Andrew Friedson, a healthcare economist at the university, stated in a news release. "This study confi rms that scribes do indeed increase the e¨ ciency of production in emergency rooms, and given these results, it's likely they could have other impacts on the healthcare sector, such as allowing physicians to focus more time on higher-quality diagnoses or simply provide better bedside manner by not splitting their attention between patients and charts." Friedson cautions, however, that the benefi ts may not accrue equally to all ERs. A hospital whose ER is generally quiet may f ind scribes are not a wor thwhile f inancia l commitment, whereas hospitals with busy ERs could see a signifi cant return on the investment. ■ BY STEVE BARRETT M D N E W S . C O M /// M D N E W S C L E V E L A N D /A K R O N / C A N T O N ■ M AY/J U N E 2 018 1 9