Physicians and Practice Administrators essay

Physicians and Practice Administrators

Types of Group Medical Practice

There are two typical divisions of group practices; single specialty and multispecialty. Single-specialty is characterized by a presence of two or more physicians that provide patients with one particular type of healthcare, which is either a primary care or a subspecialty practice. Multispecialty group practices, on the other hand, are those that offer various types of medical fields within a single organization. For a newly licensed physician, the most attractive form of group practice is the single-specialty. This is the first and most conservative form of group formation which consists of about five individuals. This group is obviously well positioned to maintain good practice for the next couple of years in addition to ensuring equity among the practitioners that assures of continued existence or for the formation of a larger group in the future. The single specialty further provides for a superb dynamics of a group because of the advantages of the economies of scale free of the bureaucratic challenges of large associations. While the size may be so small that the larger competitors can squeeze it out, it offers a beginner the experience and know-how of dealing with various challenges. This is a good place to start and build one’s practice (Ransom, 2008).

Attractive Practice for a Newly licensed Physician

As a result of influence from mentors, academic and non-academic experiences, counsel from career experts as well as trends in the market, analysis of self-strengths and weakness and the anticipated lifestyles, physicians continue t experience a changing landscape in terms of their clinical practice responsibilities in addition to the increased career options available. It has been observed that practitioners seeking a different path have undertaken additional professional or graduate degrees to expand the career options available to them. Training in business has gained increased interest from physicians. The doctors are seeking business knowledge to expound their proficiency in the financial management aspects of practice. Besides, businesses are out to get individuals with qualifications in medicine to bring new knowledge dimensions to the workplace. Apart from the traditional practice of primary care, some physicians have delved into medical research within the groups. Besides, some qualified doctors in a group practice have opted for medical editing of journals and publications (Shortell& Kaluzny, 2000).

Challenges

The business of medical group is among the best among the various forms of practice. However, the enterprise is facing enormous challenges. Groups that can perform well have a huge opportunity while those that underperform are at a danger of increased risk. The groups need to build a market share and achieve financial stability. While it is not so difficult to achieve this feat, there are significant challenges that medical associations face.

There is a rise in the complexity of practicing medicine as the operations costs continue to soar. The government rates and commercial rates offered to the practice are almost flat over many years while the practice is expected to improve on quality and meet operating overhead inflates. There are increased documentation requirements together with the difficulty of recording and many groups are experiencing compensation because of inadequate documentation of diagnosis and care.

Another challenge experienced by the group medical care practice is the competition for the market share. The associations are slowly becoming either an asset or a liability to their sponsors or partners.  The groups are not only essential for a successful health management of a population, but also because the affinity a patient has to the primary care will influence the specialty of a health system and its admission revenues. The affiliations further determine where advantage money is allocated. The patients, employers, and insurers expect that a medical group will provide patient care that can be compared with consumer experiences in other aspects of their lives. The employers, on the other hand, reward the employees that use physicians with a higher quality of care and high-cost effectiveness while penalizing those that use doctors that provide lower quality and cost effectiveness. Besides, the insurers are shifting towards narrow networks that are based on performance.

The third challenge for the group practice is leadership and culture. High performance by an association is only achieved when some physicians are party to the leadership in transforming doctor habits and customs. However, change is not an easy process and it requires change management techniques. Group culture and traditions are necessary for an organization to achieve their quality, financial and value goals.

Competencies for a Physician Practice Manager

To be a successful practice manager requires that the physician have some core competencies. It is vital that a manager demonstrates the ability to communicate precisely and clearly with both the internal and external customers. The ability to lead other doctors, create a relationship with patients and suppliers is pegged on how well the manager communicates and tries to have them read from the same script. The manager must demonstrate the ability to inspire both individual and company excellence, manage change, and create a common vision in order to attain the strategic goals and performance. Equally, a successful manager must have the ability to apply business principles and knowledge in the management of a practice. The basic business skills required include financial management, strategic planning, HR management, risk management, quality and information management (Swayne, Duncan& Ginter, 2012).

Hurdles of a Leader of a Group Practice

Group administrators continue to face many challenges in both leading the association and maintaining a reputation to the customers. There is an increased number of patients which require that the managers must find ways of providing care to the new sick persons. The managers have a challenge of maintaining the autonomy of the judgments with the rising number of clinical interference. To this regard, the manager has the responsibility of streamlining the processes and promotes leadership and involvements of partners to enable the doctors to treat the patients with independence. Finally, the group manager is faced with more administrative duties, which reduce their time of treating patients (Garman, & Johnson, 2006).

Effective Human Resource Management

Human resources form an integral part of any organization. Proper management of this resource ensures the provision of high-quality health care. There is a need for better policies on the management of this resource to be developed through research so that there is better access to healthcare for all individuals.

Function of HRM

The human resource carries out the duty of acquisition of employees, which involves analyzing the needs of employment, determining the required skills and competencies for the position, establishing the job and industry trends as well as having a forecast on the future levels of employment and the skills that will be required. The department must sustain a stable workforce during times of uncertainty to ensure the morale of employees and productivity is high at all times (Shortell & Kaluzny, 2000).

The department also ensures that there is performance appraisal in addition to continuous training. The appraisal provides feedback to the employees about their performance, which enable them to evaluate the appropriateness of their attitude and behavior towards their colleagues and managers. The HRM professional design uniform appraisal standards and train the managers to administer the appraisals.

Compensation and maintenance are other critical functions of the Hr department. The personnel pay employees and offer incentives by developing wage and salary systems that are consistent with the organization’s objectives including quality, retention, satisfaction, and motivation. In maintaining the employees, the HR ensures that the safety, benefits, and management-worker relations are in place. They keep records of health insurance provide free parking among other incentives that will help maintain the employees (Shortell& Kaluzny, 2000).

Understanding Consumer Behavior for Effective Marketing

Consumer behavior helps in making the choice of the marketing strategy that a practice will choose. Examples include the decision when to advertise a product or service by understanding when the reception will be optimum (Waldman, Kelly, Aurora& Smith, 2004).

Study of consumer behavior helps medical practice market their product effectively. The organizations must understand the psychology of how consumers feel, reason, think, and how they choose between various alternatives like brands, providers, and products. It is also important to understand how a consumer is influenced by the environment they live in including their family, media, culture and signage. Finally, a medical practice must understand the limitations of knowledge and the varying abilities to process information and how this will affect the chosen marketing strategy.

 

References

Garman, A. N., & Johnson, M. P. (2006).Leadership competencies: An introduction.Journal of Healthcare Management, 51(1), 13.

Ransom, E. R. (2008). The healthcare quality book. Health Administration Press,.

Shortell, S. M., & Kaluzny, A. D. (2000).Health care management: organization, design, and behavior.Boston: Cengage Learning.

Swayne, L. E., Duncan, W. J., & Ginter, P. M. (2012).Strategic management of health care organizations.New Jersey:John Wiley & Sons.

Waldman, J. D., Kelly, F., Aurora, S., & Smith, H. L. (2004). The shocking cost of turnover in health care. Health care management review, 29(1), 2-7.

 

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