Our Top Features for 2023

The new year is a natural time to reflect.

In recent weeks, we’ve looked back at our most-read clinical posts of 2023 as well as those the staff thought were immediately practice changing.

Today, we conclude our peek through the retrospectoscope with a list of CORRelations’ nonclinical features readers liked the best — the best ROI-generating practice improvements, the deepest insights from Doug Lundy about integrating CORRelations at work, the most-read updates from our DC insider Julie Barnes, JD, and the infographics that raised the most eyebrows. Check out what you may have missed that others enjoyed.

A new year also is a good time to cultivate gratitude. The staff here and I are grateful to have so many engaged readers. We hope in the year to come you’ll continue to enjoy what we share with you, and that you’ll continue to share your thoughts about it back to us. Drop us a line anytime at info@correlations-now.org.

“Efficient Practice”

• A New, Patient-focused Approach to Immediate Care. One of the most efficient practices I’ve ever seen shared a way to draw remunerative visits away from local emergency departments and emergency rooms, and create a $10 million/year service line by doing so.
• Free AI-based Innovations to Improve Your Practice’s Internet Presence. Multisite practices and travel clinics allow surgeons to attract patients who need subspecialty-level care from larger geographic areas. But multiple practice settings and decentralized staff teams can mean the same patient questions might get different answers. Never desirable, sometimes dangerous. In this interview, a surgeon offers no-cost, AI-driven tips for modifying practice websites quickly and effectively so they better support patients' and referring doctors' needs.

“What Now?”

• THA for Femoral Neck Fracture — What Now? If you’re a call-taking surgeon who is apprehensive about THA for femoral neck fracture, don’t miss this post. If you’re a subspecialty arthroplasty surgeon, forward it on to your nonarthroplasty partners.
• What Now? Don’t Give Into Doubt — Go With the Cefazolin. An impassioned and evidence-based call for an easy, safe, and effective choice we should make when facing a clinical problem we see every week in the OR.

“Practical Economics”

• Prior Authorization Update: Insurers Are No Longer Requiring Preapproval For Some Services. A rare break for practices from the feds results in many insurers reducing the number of services that require prior authorization; here’s what your practice needs to do to take advantage.
• Congress Calls for Bone Graft Standards Following Tuberculosis Outbreaks. This one surprised me — coverage of a product recall became one of the most-read CORRelations posts of the year. In it, Julie Barnes covers the response from DC in the wake of a tainted viable bone matrix product, as well as what practices should focus on to stay both safe and compliant.

“Chart of the Week”

• Doctors Bear Burden of Prior Authorizations. No shock that prior auth came up a couple times on today's list — it’s front-of-mind for all of us. This lovely graphic deals with the cui bono: Who benefits and who carries the burdens imposed by this process.
• Cigarette Smoking Decreases While Marijuana Use Takes Off. This one also was a bit of a surprise — CORRelations is an orthopaedic surgery newsletter, not a family practice bulletin. But taking a step back, perhaps it shouldn't be so surprising. This chart quantifies what we’re seeing in practice, and check out these related CORRelations posts covering the complications associated with marijuana use in patients undergoing joint replacement and this one covering it in spine surgery.