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2007 Industry Outlook
Healthcare
Florida's experiment to allocate Medicaid dollars more efficiently will get plenty of scrutiny.
Josh Adler, CEO
Suncoast Medical Clinic
St. Petersburg
Adler took the reins in 2004 of Suncoast Medical Clinic, an alliance of 57 physicians who serve 60,000 patients. Since then, he's focused on modernizing the clinic's technology, allowing Suncoast to eliminate paper orders for diagnostic tests and receive results electronically.
The electronic lab system gives physicians a spreadsheet of results over a two-year period, making it easier to check trends and abnormalities. Many billing, accounting and human resource functions also are done electronically. For its technology operations, the clinic recently won $25,000 in equipment and $3,000 in consulting from Cisco Systems.
Adler says his investment will produce an estimated $1 million in savings, primarily by slashing the $700,000 it had been spending on transcription costs.