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08/06/2019

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Hospital Medicine Solution

The Challenge for our Hospital Partners

The healthcare environment has never been more challenging for hospital administrators. Operating margins are under intense pressure. Value-based purchasing programs (VBP) require the investment of resources to avoid performance-based penalties. There are threats to market share from all directions. Risk-based programs such as Bundled Payments and Accountable Care Organizations add additional pressures. At the same time, the scarcity and costs of physician services continue to grow and the challenge of clinician engagement and alignment are ever-increasing.

The TeamHealth Hospital Medicine Solution

When asked about a solution, Dr. Rohit Uppal, Chief Clinical Officer, Hospitalist Services, says TeamHealth Hospital Medicine is your “easy” button. When you partner with TeamHealth, we become your partners on this journey; your priorities become our priorities. We bring national expertise as well as operational and clinical best practices from over 200 hospital medicine practices to ensure optimal hospitalist, and therefore, hospital performance.

Our team brings leadership and expertise in documentation and length of stay (LOS) management. Optimizing documentation ensures capture of the appropriate Diagnosis Related Groups (DRG), comorbidities, and case mix index. Our collaborative leadership over LOS optimization and throughput ensures efficient patient care.

TeamHealth brings expertise in managing quality metrics, patient experience, cost reduction and the safety components of value-based purchasing. Our documentation program ensures that we capture the appropriate severity of illness and expected outcome metrics. Additionally, our patient experience program leads to measurable improvements in the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) survey and ensures patients are engaged in their care. In addition, our focus on appropriate transitions of care leads to reduced Medicare spending per beneficiary (MSPB) for many of our partners. Our documentation and quality improvement efforts improve safety measures such as Central Line Associated Bloodstream Infection (CLABSI), Catheter Associated Urinary Tract Infection (CAUTI), Clostridioides difficile Infection (C diff) and Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA.)

What is our Recipe?

TeamHealth Hospital Medicine emphasizes the importance of strong clinical leadership. We provide extensive resources to train our current and future leaders. A Facility Medical Director (FMD) leads every hospital medicine program and receives support from a Regional Medical Director (RMD) and Vice President of Operations (VPO). Our Hospitalist Services Performance Improvement (HSPI) team, an eight-person team responsible for supporting performance improvement, leadership development, innovation and sharing of best practices across our national platform, supports all of our programs.

The FMD, with the support of the RMD and HSPI team, is responsible for leadership of the hospital medicine team and plays a key leadership role within the hospital and medical staff. The FMD is accountable for achieving hospital goals, meeting clinical quality and patient safety goals, ensuring hospitalist engagement and alignment, cultivating collaborative relationships with hospital and medical staff, and supporting hospital marketing efforts.

Our national resources allow for robust clinician recruitment and engagement. We are able to leverage our size and experience to remove burdens that interfere with clinical practice. We are able to provide clinical, administrative, and technical expertise to support the effective practice of hospital medicine. Our 97% clinician retention rate is a testament to the support and resources we invest in our hospital medicine programs.

Read our recent case study on how a Florida-based, multi-hospital system broke three metric records and completely eliminated the use of locum tenens physicians just one-year after TeamHealth assumed management of their hospitals.

To learn how TeamHealth can improve your hospital’s performance call 800.818.1498 or email us at business_development@teamhealth.com.