Physician engagement tips for healthcare systems
As healthcare systems move toward new payment and delivery models, physicians are the key to success.
Physicians have been challenged to provide better care at a lower cost. Add to this the fact that many physicians are overworked and continually asked to meet more mandates to receive their reimbursements, and the picture for them begins to look grim.
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But physicians want to make things better-for their hospitals, their patients, and themselves.
As health systems progress towards new care and payment models, the key to success is physician engagement, and it must be cultivated early and at the highest levels.
Cosgrove"If doctors aren't engaged, implementing critical programs and new initiatives becomes all the more difficult," says Toby Cosgrove, MD, chief executive officer of the
"When physicians are fully engaged, an environment of trust and a genuine sense of value can be established. For example, physicians will have a stronger ability to practice at the top of their specialty and foster higher collegiality and collaboration. Ultimately, that is good for patients as well."
Where we are now
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More than 70% of the physicians polled said they would make changes to their clinical practice, make greater use of evidence-based medicine, increase reporting of quality and outcomes metrics, or improve cost-saving efforts over the next few years. Nearly 85% said they would be willing to make changes to the way they worked, or collaborate with other physicians to decrease waste and improve efficiencies. Yet fewer than 20% of these physicians said they had actually started any initiatives to meet their goals.
Physician attitudes are the key barriers to the transformation of the healthcare market-and the study notes physicians either don't believe they have much control over wasteful practices, or they believe they are not equipped to implement changes.
The study suggests that improving physician engagement requires communicating the value of the change being initiated, establishing role models and utilizing peer review for motivation, training physicians on the impact of their day-to-day clinical decisions, and compensation and corporate structures that support physician efforts.
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