Lancaster, Ohio-based Fairfield Memorial Hospital encountered an issue with its specialist physicians after implementing a hospitalist program: The specialists believed the program was a way to lessen the emergency department on-call burden for primary care physicians, and they wanted the same benefit, according to a Greeley Company case study.
Eventually, the hospital's obstetricians requested to be compensated for ED call. After officials agreed to do so, members of other medical staff departments demanded ED call pay as well — which wasn't possible with the hospital's bottom line.
So, Fairfield Memorial brought in The Greeley Company to help resolve the situation and find the "underlying contention" that led to the conflict. Through interviews with administrators, board members and medical staff members, they found some old grudges were fueling the issue.
"At that point, we framed the conversation about ED call as a broader conversation about how can we work together and get to 'we'," said CEO Mina Ubbing.
A task force was formed to identify ways to decrease the burden of ED call and find fair market value for compensation for each physician specialty.
"As a result of alignment, we are able to perform better as an organization and therefore care for more patients and generate more revenue," Ms. Ubbing said. "We recognize that as an independent community hospital, if we are going to survive, we better have the doctors and the hospital on the same page."