The Chartis Group Releases High Performance Physician Enterprise Assessment

Health systems must view their physician enterprise as a critical strategic business unit

News provided by

Sep 25, 2019, 14:00 ET

CHICAGO, Sept. 25, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Failure to recognize the physician enterprise as a Strategic Business Unit and to understand and address lagging physician enterprise performance is no longer an option for most health systems. Facing mounting losses from ever-larger employed medical groups, diminished value of downstream revenues and an unforgiving economic environment, health systems can no longer sustain under-performing medical groups. This paper "How Does Your Physician Enterprise Measure Up?" identifies the key dimensions of a high-performing physician enterprise. The paper also provides a case study of and a Physician Enterprise Self-Assessment.

Nationally, operating losses per physician have increased to 17.5 percent of physician enterprise net revenue. For integrated health systems, the median investment per employed physician increased 15 percent last year to more than $240K per physician according to the AMGA 2017 Operations and Finance Survey.

Todd Hoisington, a principal with The Chartis Group and co-author of the paper noted, "Organizations are finding it increasingly difficult to sustain historical margins as their physician enterprises have become larger and more complex, even if their per-physician investment is within 'typical' range. The magnitude of financial stress is unsustainable; health systems simply cannot achieve continued bottom-line improvement they so desperately need without understanding and transforming physician enterprise performance."

Achieving sustainable financial performance requires physician enterprises to be managed and operated as independent business units, with clearly defined performance expectations and leadership who report directly to health system executives and are accountable for meeting operating standards, margin targets and performance metrics.

At the core of the high-performing physician enterprise is the patient – all processes, communications, support structures, and care models are designed around the patient's needs and preferences. A customer-service orientation permeates the organization and there is an underlying appreciation for how patient experience and community perception impact volume and reputations, including referrals, and help to build a loyal patient base.

The Physician Enterprise assessment allows health systems to compare their organization to leading practices to improve understanding of current performance and potential improvement opportunities.

About The Chartis Group
The Chartis Group® (Chartis) provides comprehensive advisory services and analytics to the healthcare industry. With an unparalleled depth of expertise in strategic planning, performance excellence, informatics and technology, and health analytics, Chartis helps leading academic medical centers, integrated delivery networks, children's hospitals and healthcare service organizations achieve transformative results. Chartis has offices in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, New York, Minneapolis and San Francisco. For more information, visit www.chartis.com.

SOURCE The Chartis Group