Home From The Editor A new management model?

A new management model?

November 2014

Published in the November 2014 issue of Today’s Hospitalist

When it comes to how hospitals staff their hospitalist groups, change has truly been the one constant. For years, many hospitals have been outsourcing their employed groups to management companies, while just as many have taken back outsourced groups and turned them into hospital employees.

Now, however, that management shuffle may be taking a different turn. As our cover story explains, a new type of model is emerging in the hospital medicine landscape.

National and regional companies that staff both EDs and hospital medicine programs are trying to convince hospitals that there are big benefits to having one group manage both ED physicians and hospitalists. And while they’ve been making this same pitch for years, these companies are offering a new twist that’s sure to get administrators’ attention.

It turns out that running the ED side of things is so profitable that some companies are willing to provide the hospitalist service with a much lower subsidy “or even at a loss “just to keep the ED part of the pie. For some administrators, slashing hospitalist costs while bringing in a larger group with a sophisticated infrastructure is just too good of an offer to pass up.

Integrated ED-hospitalist services might sound like good business for hospitals, but individual hospitalists are concerned. Physicians, particularly those from smaller independent groups, worry that their groups will be put out of business.

Many hospitals have already jumped on board while, as our story notes, some hospitals have decided to take a pass on the model for now, due to pressure from medical staff in at least one case.

But at the very least, these companies are giving hospital administrators “and hospitalist programs “something to think about.

edoyleEdward Doyle
Editor & Publisher
edoyle@todayshospitalist.com