As hospitals increasingly employ physicians and rank physician alignment as a top priority, they should keep several principles in mind to create successful alignment strategies, according to Hospitals & Health Networks.
Historically, alignment strategies have derived from fee-for-service models, which has held back progress, write Bruce Hamory, M.D., Graegar Smith and Rohit Singh of Oliver Wyman. Value-based physician alignment, they write, relies on five key principles:
- Support at the earliest stages. Collaboration with affiliated and employed physicians will allow healthcare leaders to set system-wide goals.
- Partnership with the right physicians. Hospitals should use physician data to create profiles that identify ideal physician partners and advocates that will help organizations lead change.
- Exploration of different strategies, such as physician employment and partnership with independent physicians, to better align doctors with the organization.
- Physician empowerment. Give physician leaders the ability to act and lead change. Seek input and feedback from doctors and then take action based on that feedback, the authors write.
- Develop incentives that allow physicians to share in rewards. Consider models that reflect system goals rather than simply financial outcomes, the authors recommend.
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