Strata Advisory Services Helps Large Healthcare Organization Engage Physicians in Cost Reduction

December 22, 2021

problem

Organizations Struggle to Engage Physicians in Cost and Quality Efforts

Hospitals across the country are focusing their efforts on cost containment as they drive high quality care. Understanding how to engage physicians in this process has been an ongoing challenge for most organizations. Aligning teams with cost and quality efforts when they are otherwise dedicated to other priorities can require a larger, high level cultural shift. 

Prior to partnering with Strata to redesign their continuous improvement efforts, this large, multi-site healthcare organization recognized that they had been using a dated organizational structure for employed physicians. As a result, they could not properly engage physicians in cost and quality improvement work. To hit targets, the organization needed to direct dedicated resources to managing cost reduction and quality improvement. They realized the need for a reset, with a newly structured process, reporting and training to engage their physicians in this work. 

play

Develop and Train Physicians on Quality and Cost Reporting

The organization partnered with Strata’s Advisory Services team to establish a thoughtful, structured approach to engaging physicians in quality improvement and cost reduction. As part of a larger shift toward a service-line structure, they trained physicians on understanding healthcare economics and cost reporting. These efforts helped to strengthen healthcare financial acumen among physician leaders and prepared them for the next step. 

After several months, clinical analysts at the organization began leveraging StrataJazz^® Continuous Improvement (CI) to identify focus areas and potential opportunities for each service line, working with about 10 service lines in the first year. Using the tool, the team was able to quickly highlight the largest opportunities within each service line and bring targeted insights to physicians alongside cost data, with initiatives in orthopedics and ENT. In the next fiscal year, each service line is now accountable to complete at least one cost or quality initiative with a positive return on investment, which is tracked and quantified within the CI tool. 

impact

Enact Ongoing Process to Identify Best Quality and Cost Initiatives

Taking this thoughtful approach and leveraging their partnership with Advisory Services and the CI tool, this organization has made significant progress to engage physician leaders. Establishing the foundation for ongoing alignment and accountability, the continuous improvement team now trains physician leaders from every service line on an ongoing basis. Providing physicians with specific opportunities identified within the CI tool, the continuous improvement team can take action on opportunities that make the most sense with guidance from Strata’s Advisory Services team. They have rolled the new process out to 14 service lines, with the goal to roll out to remaining service lines soon.  

Developing this process has helped establish and strengthen relationships between physician leaders and the continuous improvement team. Sharing insights from the CI tool has led these leaders to discover opportunities based on data and validate them with physicians, empowering them with trustworthy data. They will continue to focus on standardizing their quality improvement and cost reduction efforts using this new process and partnership between physician leaders and clinical analysts.