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a company that specializes in strategic healthcare initiatives such as mergers and acquisitions, management services organizations, private equity, succession planning, physician partnerships, and strategic planning. He can be reached at 

Articles

While analyzing the competition is an essential component of your strategy, most medical practices don't conduct this type of analysis systematically enough.

Are you working on a 2025 strategy?

Ryne Natzke is Chief Revenue Officer at TrustCommerce, a Sphere Company.

Practices have tools at their disposal that can help alleviate some of the problems that women face with health care affordability and access. 

How digital tools can alleviate health care access and affordability issues for women

Your monthly collection of insights from the Physicians Practice Pearls writers is available now!

Physicians Practice digital edition: Best states to practice

Nance Goldstein, MDc, ACC, PhD, partners with physicians as a leadership coach to find ways through today’s tough times and enjoy medicine more.

Her evidence-based work enables physicians to sail through the challenges of influencing others to deliver excellent care. Her clients learn simple, quick ways to lead high quality, thriving care groups – one conversation at a time. She’s an Affiliate Faculty at AriadneLabs (Brigham & Womens Hospital and Harvard’s Chan School of Public Health), as well as a scholar at Brandeis University WSRC. 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/nancegoldstein/

, curates recent research and stories of physicians making medical practice better – leadership that honors their purpose 

 improves their experience of practicing.

Her podcast offers conversations with seasoned women MDs talking about how they navigated the competing demands of practice, family and the rest of life.

She’d like to hear what troubles you in your practice. Email her: 

De-escalating situations and emotions can settle disagreements between staff members.

Messy Moments: Dial down the drama

Physicians Practice offers practical, proven solutions to the real-world concerns physicians and medical practices face every day.

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Spotlight: Career

1rem

Even though I have been practicing medicine in an atypical, concierge practice model, there are still instances where I sense a growing adversarial relationship between the doctor (me) and my patients.

Being an Advocate for Your Patients

You want to provide prevention-oriented healthcare, but how can you in a system that doesn’t seem to reward you for it? Find out how to chart your way through a maze of declining reimbursements and increasing patient panels.

Preventive Care - Is It Still Possible?

Podcast. In this podcast, we'll aim to bring you some of the most interesting, influential guests in the healthcare industry. If you have any ideas for podcast guests or topics, shoot us an email at 

The way Holston Medical Group President and CEO Scott Fowler, MD looks at it, physicians in his organization are both owne[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_crop","fid":"64969","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image media-image-right","height":"224","id":"media_crop_8112887235195","media_crop_h":"0","media_crop_image_style":"-1","media_crop_instance":"8318","media_crop_rotate":"0","media_crop_scale_h":"0","media_crop_scale_w":"0","media_crop_w":"0","media_crop_x":"0","media_crop_y":"0","style":"float: right;","title":"Scott Fowler, MD","typeof":"foaf:Image","width":"149"}}]]rs and employees.

"Revenue cycle is centralized. A lot of the economies of scale and business functions are centralized…but it still recognizes the inherent value of having the physician being an owner in a group practice," Fowler says in the podcast.

The professional model of medicine, as he calls it, is not a confederation. And unlike an IPA, Holston Medical Group is a centralized company. In that sense, physicians do answer to a central hierarchy and adhere to its standards. However, unlike a traditional medical group, physicians recruited to join Holston automatically become owners and have a say in the overall direction of the organization.

"Once you are in Holston, you are an equal owner….you're part of that partnership of peers that make up a professional organization. Inside of that, you're the captain of the ship for the pieces in the puzzle you deal with."

Later in the podcast, Fowler talks about the challenges Holston Medical Group faces in recruiting young physicians to join the professional model, rather than a large health system in terms of income and scheduling. He says that while the latter can often offer a higher income because of their non-profit status, Holston allows physicians to profit as owners when the group does well financially. And while it doesn't offer a fixed schedule, being a part of the professional model "isn't about showing up from 9 to 5…we think it's a more satisfying model, less burnout."

Fowler also talks about some of the investments the medical group has made to stay relevant in IT infrastructure. These investments, he says, allow Holston to succeed in a value-based environment.

"To succeed in those contracts you have to have great relationships with your patients, they have to be engaged, doctors have to have data at the point of care. That is what sets [Holton] apart. Most independent practices can be a little [quicker] on their feet to adopt these new ideas," Fowler says.

The professional model of medicine is trying to reach a sweet spot, allowing physicians to remain independent but maximize the power of a larger organization.

When Physicians are Owners AND Employees

. In this podcast, we'll bring you some of the most interesting and influential guests in healthcare. If you have any ideas for podcast guests or topics, email us at 

We're picking up where we left off with Halee Fischer-Wright, MD, president of the Medical Group Management Association, in this edition of the 

 which opined that healthcare needs the three elements of medicine - art, science, and business - to w

, Fischer-Wright talked to us about the lost humanity of medicine, George Clooney, and her own flirtation with medical bill-induced bankruptcy. In part two of our conversation, she talks about the high cost of managing and reporting quality measures, specifically what it will take for providers to be able to successfully track quality in a value-based environment.

"Clearly reporting quality...is not yielding the outcomes we want. We have to ask ourselves a very fundamental question: What is value? I'm not talking about the business school [definition]…what do we really value? What is valuable to us as a physician, us as a practice, and us as a patient? That's the outcome we want. Then we need to work backwards to say what are the processes, protocols, the things we need to do to achieve those goals," she says.

Fischer-Wright also talks about Women's Health Associates in Portland, Ore. and how they learned the hard way about what patients want. She also offers some main takeaways from her book and some overarching advice for practices looking to achieve balance. "There has never been a time in the history modern practice….that we have [this kind of opportunity] to create our future. People in medical practice aren't victims, we're actually empowered to make the changes we want and our patients want, to make ourselves and our patients happier," she says.

Click above to play part one of the podcast.

In her book, Halee Fischer-Wright says there has been misguided efforts to define value in healthcare and it needs to be re-examined.

Finding the True Meaning of Value in Healthcare

The law and the patients are both recognizing telemedicine's growing prominence in healthcare.

 that says a physician-patient relationship can be established via telemedicine, rather than them having to meet in person first. The Lone Star State was the only holdover of this requirement, marking another milestone for telemedicine

The technology is growing in popularity with patients too. In particular, pediatrics seems to be a growing landing spot for its usage. A recent study from Nemours Children's Hospital found that 64 percent of parents polled have used or plan to use telemedicine within the next year for the care of their child.

 podcast, we spoke to Shayan Vyas, MD, pediatric intensivist and director of telemedicine for Nemours Children's Health System, which has hospitals and clinics across Florida, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New Jersey, about this 

 and why pediatrics is an ideal spot for telemedicine. 

"Convenience is a big deal. Both mom and dad are off and working, children are at school, so family time is very limited during the school week," Vyas said on the podcast. "Using telehealth can bridge the gap and really help with the time crunch that families are struggling with today."

He also said that telemedicine increases parents' access to pediatric specialists. Later in the podcast, Vyas also talked about whether or not telemedicine is a viable option for private practice physicians and shares his advice on adopting the technology.

The telemedicine phenomenon is growing, especially in pediatrics. This podcast looks at why the specialty is an ideal landing spot for the technology.

Pediatrics an Emerging Market for Telemedicine  

 Podcast. In this podcast, we'll bring you some of the most interesting and influential guests in healthcare. If you have any ideas for podcast guests or topics, email us at 

Every year the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants (NCCPA) releases data on the physician assistant (PA) profession. 

 reveals the profession is growing by leaps and bounds. In 2010, there were just over 80,000 certified PAs nationwide. In 2016, the number has grown to just over 115,500 certified PAs.

If the NCCPA's data is any indication, many of these PAs are young women. In fact, the NCCPA found that 28 percent of certified PAs are women aged 30-39, and 14.2 percent are young women aged 20-29. Dawn Morton-Rias, PA-C, told the 

podcast being a PA provides young women a certain flexibility that being a physician cannot.

"For women, this profession is very appealing because it provides flexibility and the freedom to select the type of environment and working conditions that you want and need, depending on your personal preferences and family/life balance," said Morton-Rias, who notes it's not just women.

"Young [PA] graduates, both male and female, often select disciplines that are very demanding, requiring 12-14-hour days. As their lifestyle changes and they settle down and have families…they have the freedom to move across disciplines to those that are more conducive to a [good] work-life balance."

Another reason for the growth of the PA profession, Morton-Rias said, is its ability to ensure a more efficient patient flow in the medical practice. She said if there are 50 patients in a busy waiting room, PAs can address 70-80 percent of the needs of that patient population, freeing up the physician to provide other services.

Morton-Rias talks about other reasons for the growth of the PA profession, why it's the ideal career choice for a young person, and much more.

Click to play the podcast above for the complete interview.

The PA profession has seen tremendous growth in the last six years. There are multiple reasons for its increased popularity.

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