For a hospital starting an accountable care organization, working with physicians is crucial to success, but it takes a great deal of time and effort to have a successful working relationship with physicians, according to Nancy J. Ham, president & CEO of MedVentive in Waltham, Mass. Speaking at the National Accountable Care Organization Congress in Los Angeles, she offered seven best practices on working with physicians in ACOs.
1. Strive hard to gain their trust. Many hospital executives incorrectly assume that physicians on staff have a good relationship with the organization, but quite often this is not the case. Ms. Ham recommends designating physician champions.
2. Take time to prepare them. "Give yourself a long runway to educate physicians," Ms. Ham says. Before physicians receive financial rewards for quality and efficiency outcomes, get them used to following outcomes without money attached.
3. Provide them with convincing feedback. Physician performance data will have no effect on physicians if they don't use it. If the methodology is not rigorous, they will dispute the findings. For physicians to follow through on data, "methodology is really, really, really important." Ms. Ham says. The organization also needs to gather their feedback to make sure they accept the data.
4. Provide actionable data. Precise data is important. "The data you give them has got to be focused so it can be actionable," Ms. Ham says. "If it is not clear what is wrong, they can’t fix it."
5. Be educational, not punitive. "It is always important to have an educational tone," Ms. Ham says. Use data to pinpoint problems and then make suggestions. For example, the organization might contact a physician who is a high-prescriber of a brand name drug to say a generic version has just come out.
6. Don't overwhelm them with data. Ms. Ham suggests picking just 5-10 measurements to focus on with physicians at one time. These measurements should be a mixture of quality and financial concerns.
7. Contact them regularly. "Success depends on how often you talk to your physicians," Ms. Ham says. "If you talk to them once a year, you'll end up saying, 'you didn't do so well last year.' " That would be useless information because it would come way after the fact.
Learn more about MedVentive.
1. Strive hard to gain their trust. Many hospital executives incorrectly assume that physicians on staff have a good relationship with the organization, but quite often this is not the case. Ms. Ham recommends designating physician champions.
2. Take time to prepare them. "Give yourself a long runway to educate physicians," Ms. Ham says. Before physicians receive financial rewards for quality and efficiency outcomes, get them used to following outcomes without money attached.
3. Provide them with convincing feedback. Physician performance data will have no effect on physicians if they don't use it. If the methodology is not rigorous, they will dispute the findings. For physicians to follow through on data, "methodology is really, really, really important." Ms. Ham says. The organization also needs to gather their feedback to make sure they accept the data.
4. Provide actionable data. Precise data is important. "The data you give them has got to be focused so it can be actionable," Ms. Ham says. "If it is not clear what is wrong, they can’t fix it."
5. Be educational, not punitive. "It is always important to have an educational tone," Ms. Ham says. Use data to pinpoint problems and then make suggestions. For example, the organization might contact a physician who is a high-prescriber of a brand name drug to say a generic version has just come out.
6. Don't overwhelm them with data. Ms. Ham suggests picking just 5-10 measurements to focus on with physicians at one time. These measurements should be a mixture of quality and financial concerns.
7. Contact them regularly. "Success depends on how often you talk to your physicians," Ms. Ham says. "If you talk to them once a year, you'll end up saying, 'you didn't do so well last year.' " That would be useless information because it would come way after the fact.
Learn more about MedVentive.