At the Becker's Hospital Review CEO Strategy Roundtable in Chicago on Nov. 5, Lindsey Dunn, editor with Becker's Hospital Review, moderated a panel featuring insight from experts on the best approaches to improving hospital-physician engagement.
1. Incentives. Incentives can be a powerful tool when it comes to physician-hospital alignment. Methodist Hospital System, in the Dallas-Fort Worth market, is involved in a Medicare shared-savings ACO. This ACO was one of the only ones in the area to receive money from CMS. “We got $6 million. One third of that went to ACO costs, one third to the system and one third to the physicians,” said Pamela Stoyanoff, MBA, CPA, executive vice president and COO. “Of 220 participating physicians, approximately 130 meet the criteria [for the incentive]. This will pique the interest of physicians going forward.”
Physician buy-in and engagement with initiatives such as ACOs is only growing in importance as interest and investment in risk-sharing models grows across healthcare. Ross Nelson, MD, principal – Provider Strategy and M&A Strategy, has observed a surge in payer interest in this area. “One national payer wants to translate a quarter of their business to risk sharing models,” he said.
2. Physician governance. Allowing physicians to fill leadership roles is paramount to driving engagement. “[Dallas Medical Center] was a hospital turnaround. It was losing millions a few years ago, but we are now operating at a 27 percent profit margin,” said CEO Raji Kumar. “We were able to do this by aligning with our physicians.” Dallas Medical Center allowed physicians to take ownership of their problems and create the solutions and actively put physicians in leadership roles.
3. Leadership training. While physician leadership is a key to driving engagement, not all physicians are equipped with the necessary tools to take on these roles. “Last year, we started a physician leadership academy to cultivate the necessary skills and competencies,” said Michael O. Ugwueke, DHA, FACHE, president and COO, Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare.