JoAnne Hahey: A Win-Win Partnership
JoAnne Hahey, CFO at Jefferson Regional Medical Center, finds financial benefits in hospital-physician partnerships.
By Sarah Fister Gale | Print the pdf of this story
Hospital-physician partnerships can have benefits beyond simply fostering strong relationships with community physicians—they can impact the bottom line, says JoAnne Hahey, vice president and CFO of Jefferson Regional Medical Center, a 373-bed facility in Pittsburgh.
“The financial implications of physician-hospital relationships is win-win,” she says.
This is particularly true as the struggling economy and rising healthcare costs force facilities and physicians to reexamine their business strategies.
Too often incentives for physicians and hospitals are at odds, Hahey says, leaving one group suffering when the other benefits, such as when surgeons offer in-office treatments that would normally be handled at the hospital.
But according to Hahey, partnerships between physicians and hospitals can eliminate these conflicting interests, aligning the goals of both groups for mutual benefit.
She points to the results of Jefferson’s recent purchase of a general surgery practice.
In the past, hospital leaders struggled to negotiate discounts with surgical supply vendors because the vendors knew the physicians would continue demanding the products they liked, regardless of the price. That all changed after Jefferson acquired the surgery practice because the physicians and the hospital now have an equal stake in the purchasing decisions.
“When the surgeons were on the same side of the table with us,” Hahey says, “the vendor realized they were at risk of losing our business and were more willing to offer concessions.”
Jefferson also supports its physicians’ junior recruiting efforts, which can be time-consuming and a financial burden to practices.
“We guarantee senior physicians’ salaries, and give them time to train junior staff,” Hahey says.
This creates an incentive for senior physicians to take the time to find replacements, ensures new employees are properly initiated, and prevents the community and the hospital from experiencing a void in critical care delivery when physicians retire.
Along with easing the financial burden on physicians and hospitals, these programs create a culture of teamwork, where administration and physicians work together to increase the quality of care, reduce costs, and improve outcomes.
But Hahey notes that these relationships are not easy to foster. “It takes time,” she warns. “Most physicians are accustomed to being independent, and they are skeptical of big organizations.”
She urges hospital administrators to invest the time and effort to win physicians’ trust and to work together to develop partnership programs that meet the needs of physicians and hospitals so greater levels of care can be delivered at lower costs.
“Consumers are stretched so thin, and their healthcare dollar is not going as far as it used to,” she says. “If these physician-hospital partnerships can make care more affordable and accessible, then fewer patients will fall through the cracks.”