Physicians who regularly admitted to Tenet hospitals are sending fewer of their patients to those hospitals, reports a Los Angeles Times story. Tenet has 15,000 physicians practicing at 69 hospitals nationwide, but 9,000 of those physicians sent, on average, less than a dozen patients per physician last year compared to 17 patients per physician three years ago. Tenet reported three years of losses, including a loss of $286 million in the most recent quarter, and a 2.5% drop in patient admissions over last year in the fourth quarter alone.
To reverse this trend, Tenet has launched a Physician Sales Call campaign, sending teams of local hospital administrators to listen to physician grievances and to correct problems, such as improving OR efficiency or delivering diagnostic test results to physician offices more quickly. Results in California have been encouraging, with admissions up 1.4% last year.
