Newsletter
Physician Alignment and Leadership Academies: Essentials for ACO Success
Presented by Integrated Healthcare Strategies, as authored by James A. Rice, Ph.D., FACHE
The journey to develop physician leaders continues.
Hospital boards and CEOs are scrambling to clarify their roadmap into the uncharted waters of Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs). Many have established new legal structures, or adapted old PHOs and MSOs to have the chaise for ACO care management, chronic disease management, and a new generation of gain sharing. Yet with all these initiatives, the results will be flat unless physicians and clinical service line managers are guided and supported to make the journey into clinical integration by a new generation of physician leaders.
Our industry needs over 1,000 effective physician leaders that are more confident, comfortable, and competent to engage in ACO strategic planning, budgeting, and operational process improvements over the next 3-5 years. We will not secure this supply of physician leaders unless more hospital organizations accelerate and enhance their development of “Physician Leadership Academies.”
These academies will need a mission that parallels the following assertion:
Our Academy teaches physician leaders the discipline, skills, and critical thinking needed to initiate collaborative, patient-centered solutions that will transform our health care delivery organization into the most respected and vital care system in our region.
Key design features of these Physician Leadership Academies are:
- Reliance on small groups of physician cohorts for group learning while encouraging interdisciplinary projects and case studies
- Emphasis on real-time case studies of serious challenges that relate to enhancing the patient experience, process improvements, and measurable economic gain
- Support for learning about self awareness, listening and dialoguing
- Reliance on a mix of in-house expert faculty with outsourcing and in-sourcing with local business schools, national health leader associations, or professional firms
- Requirements for short, bite-size sessions of two to four hours, spread over several weeks, to encourage applications in real world settings and to be respectful of physician time
- Cautious reliance on new digital learning tools such as webinars, podcasting, teleconferencing and dedicated web sites for knowledge resource document downloads, and expert bulletin boards
Investments to establish a physician leadership academy vary across the United States, but most range (exclusive of compensation for physician leader time) from $55,000 to $125,000 per year, depending on the number of participants, the degree of reliance on external faculty,
the frequency of learning sessions throughout the year, and the amount of candidate and faculty travel. Advances in web-based learning, leader blogs, and teleconferencing help extend the return on these investments.
Governing these academies is best accomplished with a small “Advisory Board” of 7-9 respected physician leaders and 2-3 executives from the organization.
IHStrategies has been engaged to design such academies, and to organize study tours for small groups of physicians, board, and executives to see first-hand how ACO-prepared organizations rely on next-generation physician leaders for their success. Please contact us if you would like to be provided with model curricula and learning modules.
About the Author
Jim Rice is Executive Vice President with the Executive Compensation and Governance practice of Integrated Healthcare Strategies and may be contacted by calling 800.327.9335 or emailing Jim.Rice@IHStrategies.com.
About Integrated Healthcare Strategies
Integrated Healthcare Strategies provides not-for-profit healthcare organizations with direct access to a comprehensive array of healthcare-specific services, delivered by professionals from the industry who understand the rigors of running a healthcare organization – from the lunchroom to the Board Room. Its client list is a “who’s who” of healthcare organizations including over 1,200 major healthcare providers, 1,800 hospitals and 700 independent and affiliated medical groups. Integrated Healthcare Strategies specializes in the areas of physician strategy and compensation, employee compensation, executive compensation, human capital solutions, labor relations, leadership transition planning, executive search, employee surveys, performance management and board governance solutions.
The Executive Compensation and Governance practice provides valuable information, design and strategy for a variety of governance and leadership issues and challenges. These services include executive compensation program review and design, leadership continuity planning and development, governance model design development, board retreats to enhance effectiveness, CEO and executive performance development and appraisals, physician leader services and many other governance and compensation services.
For more information, visit www.IHStrategies.com.
