A friend of mine from high school called me this morning for some friendly advice. She comes from a long line of healthcare professionals (her brother is a doctor, her father was a doctor, and her mother and three sisters are nurses in various hospitals within Northeastern and Central Pennsylvania). She earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Premedicine from Penn State’s Eberly College of Science and went to the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, but decided to opt out and go to law school, after her first year.
After watching her father suffer through Alzheimer’s (he died in a nursing home this past Christmas), she has decided she wants to go back and finish medical school, to be of service to the sick, in need of good, caring physician services providers.
Her hesitation stems from the recent buzz that points out an escalating number of physician service providers, owning private practices, having to close their doors, to work under large health care systems. Health reform is the cause this drastic change in the industry.
Since we were kids, I remember this woman, who was destined to become a doctor just like her daddy, talk about how she would decorate her office so that patients would walk in and immediately feel warm, safe, and welcome.
“Ugh, but I always dreamed of running my own doctor’s office: building that solid reputation that private practice physicians can quickly achieve through consistent patient care, and keeping my name linked to an office building,” she said. “I hear too many mixed comments about the direction in which medicine is heading, and I don’t want to end up having made a big mistake.”
That is understandable. But, I am hopeful that my feedback keyed in on the fact that physicians moving away from private practice, believe it or not, do have options – some great options, at that. Patient care providers don’t have to feel backed in to a wall, because there is plenty of room to explore different routes and make the best possible decision. I also mentioned that hospitals and such large healthcare facilities are, most likely, equally as flustered by this growing movement.
According to an article in FierceHealthcare.com, “as physicians migrate from private practice to larger health systems, the new landscape will require healthcare IT, medical device manufacturers, pharmaceutical companies and payers to revise their business models and offerings, while hospitals must determine how to retain and recruit the proper physicians, especially in high-growth service lines, including cardiovascular care, orthopedics, cancer care and radiology.”
A growing solution in the United States that addresses issues and offers solutions, to both physicians and hospital administrators, are the ever popular physician outsourcing companies. For physicians, a company such as OPYS, promises to provide equal equity, competitive benefits, and custom-tailored schedules; administrators utilizing the company’s expertise benefit, as the company places experienced physicians, medical directors, practice resource coordinators, nurse liaisons, or coding and compliance teams, to streamline their hospitals and healthcare facilities.
This concept essentially results in an orderly facility, which results in happy patients. Happy patients result in fewer lawsuits. Outsourced physician services providers ultimately maximize revenue and cut expenses.
So, to end, I left my friend with this final question, “Let’s say the private practice dream dissipates upon medical school completion; is the fancy office the driving force that is propelling you to help, heal, and save lives?”