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New: Rapid Assessment/ Improvement Physician-Engagement Program
To take the physician-hospital relations assessment survey, please click here.
The five minutes you spend could transform your hospital’s practice environment.
How Well Are You Dealing with Healthcare’s Hidden Drain?
We all pay for it, but few are aware of its extent. An us-versus-them relationship between physicians and hospital leaders affects healthcare quality, safety, reimbursement, and expenses. Generally, doctors are at odds with hospital executives because of differences in outlook and training and because of perverse financial incentives. People who make an extra effort to improve patient care are not uniformly recognized or rewarded. Physicians lose time, hospitals lose money, and patients suffer adverse outcomes.
The most expensive device in most hospitals is neither the MRI nor the PET scanner, but the physician’s pen. Doctors significantly influence hospital revenue, expenses, and clinical outcomes by their daily decision making, but their allegiance is to their professional and economic well-being, not to the hospital. Waste and inefficiency threaten the viability of our healthcare non-system.
Working smarter, not harder is the answer. Effective, enlightened dialogue between physicians and hospital executives enables them to serve their common interests. Hospitals where Dr. Cohn has helped physicians and hospital leaders work more interdependently have saved hundreds of thousands of dollars, which they have reinvested in improved facilities and processes. For example:
- At a West coast hospital, cardiologists challenged orthopedists to consolidate their vendors. An orthopedic physician champion studied the data and convinced his colleagues that no differences in clinical outcomes existed with different implantable devices. He persuaded his colleagues to cut their vendors from 8 to 2, saving the hospital $4.2 million over 3 years. The hospital used “virtual gain-sharing,” asking the orthopedic surgeons what equipment they needed, and spent $365,000 on a new fracture table and imaging system. The result was a win for the surgeons, for the hospital, and for patients and their families.
Why Work with Dr. Cohn?
Dr. Kenneth Cohn is a practicing general surgeon/ MBA with an 11-year track record of engaging physicians to improve performance rapidly. He has written two books on healthcare collaboration and has taught the ACHE seminar, “Practical Strategies for Engaging Physicians” for the past six years. Physicians enjoy working with fellow practicing physicians, as seen from the comments below:
Dr. Cohn gained the trust of the physicians very early on and helped them establish important clinical priorities for our hospital.
Ron Werft, President and CEO Santa Barbara Cottage Health SystemFor the first time in our history, we now have a roadmap written by a consensus of our top clinicians; we also have identified several previously unidentified physician leaders who can help us go forward. Ken facilitated both processes. Ken accomplished what he did in an atmosphere of integrity and sensitivity, increasing trust and transparency from the physician and hospital administrator perspectives.
Tom Gagen, CEO, Sutter-Sacramento HospitalKen’s understanding of the problems facing hospitals and physicians in these challenging times is outstanding. He continually offers succinct, timely advice and brilliant insight.
Dr. Michael Ivy, VP of Quality and Safety, Bridgeport Medical Center
What Dr. Cohn Provides
Dr. Cohn:
- Works with you to develop an individualized assessment tool from which you can learn your physicians’ answers to questions, such “How likely are you to recommend this hospital to colleagues, friends, and family? What are the reasons for your reply? What are your top three recommendations to improve the practice environment here?”
- Administers the questionnaire to your top doctors, the physician champions who have earned the trust of the rest of your medical staff, probing to uncover facts that physicians share with fellow physicians
- Analyzes the data and helps you put together a prioritized action plan to build transparency and trust, improve the efficiency and effectiveness of physicians’ time, and obtain improved financial and clinical outcomes.
- Dr. Cohn meets with your top physicians and senior administrative team. At the end of the third day, he develops with you a focused action plan based on feedback from your top physicians that helps you move from being stuck to improving performance.
- The outcomes improve performance, heighten your standing with your physicians and Board, and help you leave a lasting legacy of cost-effective care for your community
Guarantee
Dr. Cohn will engage your top doctors to produce a focused action plan, or his consulting time is free, and you pay nothing but his travel expenses.
If your hospital is like others, you may lose what he charges in only a week because of suboptimal physician-hospital relations. Starting with an assessment by your top physicians can help you prevent the next crisis and build virtuous rather than vicious cycles.
Please contact Dr. Cohn today at ken.cohn@healthcarecollaboration.com to schedule your complimentary physician relations strategy session.
To take the physician-hospital relations assessment survey, please click here.
The five minutes you spend could transform your practice environment.