As discussed in the previous blog, there are three choices of partners for physicians to dance to the ACA melody of healthcare reform: colleague physicians, healthcare delivery systems and patients. With all three types of partners, physicians must possess excellent communication skills. However, the steps to the ACA dance are different depending on the physician’s dance partner.
The dance with our physician colleagues is a simple two-step process. The first step is to communicate patient data and information for seamless patient treatment, leading to a better quality of care and patient safety.1 The second step is the more difficult maneuver as it requires leadership by one, or even better, both partners. Physician leadership can come in many forms, such as leading the healthcare team, a hospital department, or even the medical staff in the unchartered waters of healthcare reform. (See previous blog #4.)
The dance with our healthcare delivery systems is a slightly more complex three-step process. As with our physician colleagues the first step is communication; sharing and analyzing patient outcome data leading to the second step of best practice identification. The final third step has proven to be a tricky maneuver for physicians and delivery systems: system-wide adoption and application of best practices to bring about the efficiency needed to dance to the ACA tune of healthcare reform. 2
Next month in the final blog of "Doing the ACA," we will discuss the dance of the physician-patient duo!
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1.Cassatly M, Mitsch D, The Successful Application of Business Coaching to Decrease, Preventable Medical Errors, Journal of Medical Practice Management, accepted for Vol 26:7, July/Aug 2011
2.Cassatly M, Stakeholder Partners: The New Landscape in U.S. Healthcare, Journal of Medical Practice Management, Vol 26:4, 199-202, Jan/Feb 2011
