Published in the December 2006 issue of Today’s Hospitalist
If hospitalist programs have an Achilles’ heel, it’s the fact that their business model isn’t always immediately apparent to hospital administrators.
You know your program is saving the hospital money and improving the quality of care. But you need to be able to prove that to hospital administrators, who may be more focused on the checks they’re writing to make up the difference between your professional fees and your expenses.
Even if your program is well-established, the issue never really goes away. Move to 24/7 coverage, for example, and you’ll have to make your case to get more support from the hospital. And if you want to add surgical co-management to your program, you’ll likewise need help from the hospital to pay the bills.
Because being able to make a strong business case is so important for hospitalists, we decided to ask the experts how they go about doing that. In this month’s
cover story we’ve put together an overview of talking points that you can use to prove to your administrators just how indispensable your services are.
Proving that value is so critical, in fact, that we’re addressing the topic during several sessions at this spring’s Hospitalist Conferences USA CME series. You’ll find more information about those meetings in this issue as well.
By now, many hospital administrators have an idea of the value that hospitalist programs bring, but you nevertheless need to take the lead to gather and report these data.
Getting a good handle on what your program brings to the table, both financially and otherwise, is the only way to protect your program’s good standing “and its future.
Edward Doyle
Editor and Publisher
edoyle@todayshospitalist.com
