45H - New Strategies for Optimizing Employed Physician Group Performance: Case Study of Turning Conflict Into Partnering

Tuesday, March 21

10:45–11:45 a.m.

This session will begin with presentation of the challenges a healthcare system that had acquired the major cardiology group in the market experienced due to dysfunctions within the group. Some of these challenges included distorted incentives and dysfunctional group culture following a shift to RVU compensation, cardiologists not aligned with each other or with the system, internal group governance not trusted, lack of a culture or process of accountability for enforcing standards of performance, physician to physician and physician to management conflicts, low trust, and long delays in seeing new patients leading to significant outmigration. New system leadership adopted a new approach to these intractable challenges. Presenters will share how establishing a steering committee and utilizing a facilitated conflict resolution process led to a new shared vision of success, ground rules for working together, and the launch of a series of projects that led to the cardiovascular service line becoming the highest performing service line in the system with far more functional culture, leadership and accountability within the cardiology group and enhanced physician-system collaboration and alignment.

Participants will come away with new approaches for achieving enhanced physician-hospital collaboration and alignment, especially in settings of low trust and high conflict in an employed physician group.

Learning Objectives

• Describe an approach to address challenges of conflict and low trust between employed physicians and a healthcare system and physician to physician to achieve targeted goals.
• Identify strategies and tools to turn around the culture and performance of a dysfunctional, underperforming employed physician group.