Tennessee Foundation for Quality Patient Healthcare

Aligning Hospital Administrators and Physicians

The way to bridge the gap between physicians and hospital/healthcare system administration is to get more employed physicians engaged in leadership roles within their organizations. TMA can help facilitate a path to leadership to get doctors more directly involved in projects surrounding quality, efficiency and cost. And if the organization sees tangible results, then we can point back to organized medicine as an effective (even necessary) intermediary that delivers new and unique value to both the employed physician and his/her employer.

The preferred practice environment for U.S. physicians has shifted during the past few years from independent practice to employed models. In Tennessee, as many as half of all physicians are now employed in some fashion. Nationally, a new study from the Physicians Advocacy Institute shows that the number of practices owned by hospitals and health systems rose nearly 90% from 2012-2015, and the number of U.S. physicians employed by hospitals or health systems increased from 25% to 28% during that same period.

All employed physicians and their employers share at least one common goal: deliver the highest quality care at the lowest possible cost. Yet, a universal disconnect between the administration and the medical staff obstructs progress on both sides.

We believe the way to bridge this gap is to get more employed physicians engaged in leadership roles within their organizations. Physicians are the most well-equipped to assume key roles within corporate healthcare and help non-clinical administrators make good decisions but often have difficulty navigating the “corporate” environment. Facilitating a calculated path to leadership would get doctors more directly involved in projects surrounding quality, efficiency and cost, which should be the primary goals of both audiences.