Collaborative Systems
A friend who is a retired COO of a Western hospital sent me the following e-mail after reading my column, A Practicing Surgeon Dissects Issues in Physician-Hospital Relations: You are to blame for getting me to think as a hospital administrator once again- since I have really been enjoying semi-retirement! You mention the implications of the relationship that occurs [...]
Tags: collaboration in healthcare, healthcare systems, hospital systems, improving physician-hospital relations, physician administrator communication, physician-hospital communication, physician-hospital relations
Collaborative Physician-Hospital Strategies
Before reviewing Jay Warden’s new book, Creating Sustainable Physician-Hospital Strategies (Chicago: Health Administration Press), I need to disclose that the author cited the Medical Advisory Panel (MAP) at Santa Barbara Cottage Health System as a model for physician-hospital collaboration (p.61-63). I facilitated that project in 2003 and attended a MAP meeting there two weeks ago, [...]
Tags: co-management, collaboration in healthcare, improving physician-hospital relations, Jay Warden, physician administrator communication, physician-hospital communication, physician-hospital joint ventures, physician-hospital relations
Uncollaborative Insurance
For those accustomed to data-driven posts, I apologize. This post is 99% personal experience. It represents my ongoing battle with Harvard Pilgrim Health Care to obtain coverage that I need at a price that I can afford. This episode began when I received a notice dated 2/11/09 notifying me that the cost of my family [...]
Tags: collaboration in healthcare, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, health promotion, healthcare insurance, improving physician-hospital relations, physician administrator communication, physician-hospital communication, physician-hospital relations
Collaborative Business
I’m sorry for being late with this post. I was on vacation in California with my wife and 82 year-old mother, whom we try to get out of the cold, snowy Buffalo weather one week each winter. The 5-hour plane ride gave me time to read Why Healthcare Matters: How Business Leaders Can Drive Transformational Change [...]
Tags: collaboration in healthcare, Frank Hone, improving physician-hospital relations, physician administrator communication, physician-hospital communication, physician-hospital relations, transformational healthcare change
Collaborative Workout
During business school, I took a course on Organizational Change with Bill Joyce, one of the consultants who helped design the GE workout program to: realize tangible improvements within a short time reduce bureaucratic barriers that hinder decision making and implementation expose and overcome misalignment of incentives generate ideas at every level increase visibility improve [...]
Tags: Chip Caldwell, collaboration in healthcare, Greg Butler, improving physician-hospital relations, managing healthcare change, physician administrator communication, physician-hospital communication, physician-hospital relations
Collaborative Etiquette
A couple of weeks ago, as I was finishing up a weekend of surgical coverage, the hospital CEO quipped, “How come you weren’t in the OR where I can be making money off you?” I replied, “I did something far more important. I spent over one half hour each weekend day listening to Dr. X.” [...]
Tags: active listening, collaboration in healthcare, improving physician-hospital relations, physician administrator communication, physician patients, physician-hospital communication, physician-hospital relations
Collaborative Compact
Tags: collaboration in healthcare, improving physician-hospital relations, physician administrator communication, Physician compact, physician-hospital communication, physician-hospital relations, Wheaton Franciscan Medical Group
Collaborative Consultation
I don’t usually talk about work, but the muse awakened me at 6:30 am with some thoughts. I felt proud to be a physician this past weekend. I was invited to facilitate a medical staff retreat for a mid-size community hospital. The theme was “Challenging the Status Quo.” My formal talks included “Interdependendent Healthcare: Moving [...]
Tags: challenging status quo, collaboration in healthcare, improving physician-hospital relations, physician administrator communication, physician-hospital communication, physician-hospital relations, physician-physician communication
Collaborative Fairness
If we have established that life is not fair, what do we do about it? The best advice that I can offer, after traveling through over 40 states, is to reframe, changing perspective to see life as a learning journey rather than a conspiracy. Dr. Abigail Zuger pointed out that the golden age, that lasted approximately two decades after the passage of Medicare in 1965, was an anomaly.
Tags: abigail zuger, barry dorn, collaboration in healthcare, improving physician-hospital relations, leonard marcus, physician administrator communication, physician employment, physician-hospital communication, physician-hospital relations
Collaborative Budgeting
Who would have guessed that a surgeon would blog on budgeting? My interest began when a fellow surgeon, the current Chief Operating Officer of a Midwest hospital, wrote that budgeting can make collaboration more of a nicety than a necessity (Lambert M. 2004. “Improvement and Innovation in Hospital Operations: A Key to Organizational Health.” Frontiers of Health [...]
