Healthcare System in the Southwest
Client Overview:
This healthcare network includes 30 facilities providing services throughout the Southwest. It includes urban acute-care hospitals, rural hospitals, a mental health hospital, and primary care clinics for the uninsured, with a medical staff of more than 1,700 physicians.
It is part of a major not-for-profit health system with a strong commitment to patient safety.
The Challenge:
System leaders understood that strong physician leadership was imperative in order to:
- Meet their key strategic goals in patient safety
- Shepherd the right resources and medical education
- Ensure regulatory compliance
- Reinforce physician relationships by building and expanding physician networks
The Solution:
We were brought in for three reasons:
- To assess how well the network and its physicians worked together – and what impact that relationship and its organizational structure would have on its patient safety initiative
- To restructure the matrix of vertical and horizontal physician leadership roles within the network to better align authority with responsibility
- To design and deliver a program that would extend the bench strength of physician leaders
The Impact:
The new structure made better use of both full-time and part-time physician leaders, including medical directors of units, programs, and services.
Our “bench strength” strategy identified leaders and potential leaders and provided real-time training and management to support and enhance effectiveness through individual coaching and mentoring around leadership skills.