As the societal trend swings even harder toward the communal and the cooperative, it’s more important than ever that medical groups understand that maintaining their relationships with hospitals requires breadth, depth, and length. This means involvement in a wide range of hospital and medical staff issues, leadership, not just participation, and commitment to a long […]
The Wall Street Journal reported that Japan’s 100 year old Sharp Corp. announced that it had doubts that it could remain as a going concern. Sharp had invested heavily in building liquid crystal display manufacturing plants in order to compete with its South Korean rivals, only to have the market collapse. Sharp’s president was quoted as […]
Having all group members buy in to the same cause is a winning strategy.
In terms of thinking about the future, are practicing physicians really different from residents? I recently gave the opening lecture in my series for residents. The first topic: The trends affecting the future of their practice. Some in the audience paid close attention. Others didn’t. An even smaller number came up afterwards to ask in […]
Contrary to the misfortune that befell the first little pig — you know, the one who built his house out of straw — I’ve recently learned that it’s actually quite possible to build a solid home from bales of straw. That is, as long as it’s resting on a solid foundation. Many medical groups, especially […]
How unlikely is it that in twenty years, the only physician actually in the O.R. will be the anesthesiologist?
As hard as it is for me to say, it’s been 40 years since I had my summer job at McDonald’s. Yet after all this time, I remember some of the standards-enforcing mechanisms the franchise used, from written instructions on how each of the food items was to be prepared, to cards bearing sayings such […]
As you may know, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Obamacare, imposes a requirement – a mandatory requirement — that physician groups adopt compliance programs. These programs are not simply plans that you document, toss into a notebook and keep on a shelf – they must be living breathing programs revisited on an ongoing […]
Are you actually preventing your medical group’s success?
Sun Tzu, the ancient Chinese military strategist, wrote that, “He will win whose army is animated by the same spirit throughout all its ranks.” Although running a medical group just sometimes seems like war, the essence of that advice is completely applicable. Too often treating all group physicians as colleagues entitled to a high degree […]
