As a community health system in a market saturated with large and internationally renowned health systems, Baltimore-based LifeBridge Health is highly focused on fostering a positive work environment to attract and retain physicians amid a worsening shortage.
"We're very focused on being an employer of choice and being a great health system and medical group for physicians and other providers to work at," Daniel Durand, MD, chief clinical officer at LifeBridge Health, told Becker's. "That's priority number one, two and three."
In September, LifeBridge Health was named one of America's Best Employers by Forbes. The health system also achieved its fifth consecutive Great Place to Work Certification earlier this year.
Becker's recently spoke with Dr. Durand about how LifeBridge Health has fostered an award-winning workplace culture that has aided physician recruitment and retention efforts.
Over the last five to 10 years, the system has focused on building an internal medical group with a strong shared culture. Leaders extracted the most positive cultural components from every physician practice or entity the system has acquired across the care continuum and melded them into a "communal consensus culture" that offers a shared definition of what it means to be a LifeBridge Health physician, Dr. Durand said.
One core aspect of this culture is a relatively flat organizational hierarchy, so team members feel comfortable approaching leaders to share thoughts or concerns. Dr. Durand said an open-door policy is crucial for leaders to glean valuable insights from front-line caregivers, who often have the most powerful ideas when it comes to things like building a new service line or improving a current one.
"Doctors generally don't want to have a boss. They want to have someone listen to them, figure out what drew them to medicine, and then figure out what motivates them and how they can get more and more of that every day," Dr. Durand said. "Part of that is achieved by the open-door policy. Part of it is achieved by producing great results because you really want to attract to your organization people that are focused on results."
That's where LifeBridge Health’s rigorous focus on quality performance comes in, both for its ACO programs and for other quality metrics the system reports to the state. But even a strong reputation for excellence and open-door policy alone are not always enough to attract physicians who would thrive in this type of culture, according to Dr. Durand.
"Another part is that people like to be able to have a legacy and think about what they're passing on to the next generation," he said, noting that teaching opportunities in the system's residency and fellowship programs have historically attracted many physician leaders to the Baltimore area.
LifeBridge Health opened a regional medical school campus at Sinai Hospital in Baltimore this year through a partnership with George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences. The campus welcomed its first class of medical students in April, and many physician leaders at LifeBridge Health now serve as adjunct faculty members.
Dr. Durand said the new medical school and partnership with such a prestigious university has aided in physician recruitment efforts.
"This is a big draw — the ability to be associated with not just a medical school, but George Washington University," Dr. Durand said.
Like many systems nationwide, LifeBridge Health is also aiming to streamline in-office workflows and reduce documentation burdens for physicians. The health system is in the early stages of these efforts, with the ultimate goal of eliminating pajama time and documentation rabbit holes that prevent physicians from practicing at the top of their license.
"If we could ease up on those and let them engage with their patients more, I think we would see a decrease in the scarcity of physician labor like the access issues and improvements in patient satisfaction and patient safety, as well as provider satisfaction," Dr. Durand said.