Medical groups have a unique place in today’s rapidly changing healthcare environment. No matter their ownership structure, they have the opportunity meet unique needs of patients and can allow hospitals and health systems to provide improved access to care.
Over the last two decades, we have seen a shift from largely self-employed physicians and many small group practices to a market where physicians prefer to be employed by integrated delivery systems, hospitals or health systems. This change has brought major impacts to the healthcare industry, including seeing health systems lose their ability to rely on voluntary medical staffs and requiring health systems to bring physicians into their business model.
With physician groups as a major component of success in meeting the needs of patients and advancing the business interests of health systems and IDNs, it is vital for medical groups to have the right administrative and operational structures in place. To begin building your medical group model, or to evaluation your current structure, consider these points:
You must have the right administrative structure in place. There is not one single governance model that will fit every medical group; your administrative team should be designed to support the long-term goals of your group. However, there are key aspects of the team that should be in place for all medical groups.
- Strong executive leadership. The right Chief Executive Officer/Administrator is imperative to the success of your medical group. Your executive leader will put strategy in place and build your culture, as well as driving growth initiatives and increasing your market share.
- Knowledgeable IT executives. Strong information technology leadership can be a market differentiator for your medical group, as well as a valuable asset in driving innovation. Utilizing the latest technologies can help streamline processes, improving the patient experience and innovate your clinical environment to enhance productivity.
- Strategic revenue cycle leadership. Medical groups must have revenue cycle leaders in place with an understanding of how to bundle payments, streamline reimbursements and how value-based care can influence both payment models and the strategic direction of the organization.
- Skilled operational leadership. While there are many roles and structures for operations executives within a medical group, the critical focus for these leaders should be on resource utilization, eliminating clinical silos and creating a culture of coordinated care that meets the needs of the patients, as well as the goals of the organization.
Your operations must align with your future goals. Under a model that includes voluntary medical staff, historically, performance has not been closely tracked. However, with an employed medical group it is crucial to track all aspects of performance, including productivity, clinical quality and patient satisfaction. Putting metrics and measurements in place and installing a system for reviewing these numbers will ensure your team stays on track. This will also allow transparency between the employed physicians and the administrators to make sure everyone is working toward the same goal.
- Ownership structure plays a part in designing your operational processes. If your medical group is owned by or affiliated with a health system or hospital, you will want to partner with the corresponding leadership team to create key performance indicators that align with system goals.
Your culture must support your operational strategies. Depending on the ownership structure, a medical group may adopt a similar culture to their parent organization, or an independent group may want to build their own culture based on their own set of values. Either way, it is important to integrate the cultural ideals into the daily operations of the group. Supporting physicians when they have ideas or concerns, putting processes in place to support patients who have challenges and building ways to help advance the careers of star employees will help keep the team engaged and the culture strong.
- Use your culture as a recruiting guide. When considering leaders to fill vacant or newly created positions, look for executives who not only bring the experience and expertise needed, but whose personality, values and vision will align with the culture you want to create (or support).
For medical groups, or any healthcare organization, the right leadership team is vital to success. As the necessary leadership traits continue to evolve, it is important to know where to find the right candidates and how to create your leadership roles to attract the right executives.
To read more advice from Joyce Tucker on building high-performing teams, view the white paper available on the Cejka Search website.
Joyce Tucker
Executive Vice President, Managing Principal of Cejka Search
jtucker@cejkasearch.com
Phone: 314-236-4518