In today's competitive environment, collaboration among stakeholders is imperative for successful high-performing healthcare organizations. Yet, while some collaborative efforts achieve spectacular synergies, many actually backfire―wasting time, money, and resources. Why does this happen, and how can you avoid it? Drawing on rich examples from companies such as Hewlett-Packard, Procter & Gamble, Apple, and BP, Morten Hansen will share proven techniques of goal-based “disciplined collaboration” that leaders can use to separate good collaboration opportunities from bad ones and achieve cost-savings, better innovation, and increased market share

With the demands for change in the healthcare delivery system, physician leadership has become more necessary than ever. Developing physician leaders from within the organization became necessary for The Iowa Clinic using an experiential learning approach. This presentation will detail the organization’s innovative partnership with the University of South Florida College of Medicine to establish The Leadership Institute at The Iowa Clinic, where they have been able to transform the physician participants into becoming better leaders.

Upon completion of this activity, participants should be able to evaluate and develop a process for creating a physician leadership program.

Integration of community practices into larger organizations has become common practice in today’s financially struggling healthcare world. This session will explore one organization’s experience of evaluating finances, productivity, and salaries, and integrating more than 20 community primary care practices and 80 doctors into its system. The presenters will explore in detail an approach Cleveland Clinic has taken to meet the challenge.

At the conclusion of the session, participants will be able to articulate the evaluation process necessary to integrate a practice into their organization; describe why the culture of the group employment model is important to quality, patient safety, and financial stability for an organization; and assess whether their own organization might benefit from employing a similar tactic.

This presentation will examine the reorganization of the organized medical staff’s governance to align it with hospital-owned group practice leadership using a radical model that purposely blended the roles of the Medical Executive Committee and the Group Practice Executive Council. The barriers, opportunities, and early results of a hybrid governance model will be discussed by the CEO of the health system and the president of the and medical group.

Upon completion of this activity, participants should be able to identify the barriers to effective work on quality, safety, and operations when governance structures are not aligned; identify the relevant legal and regulatory factors that need to be addressed when merging organized medical staff and group governance; and evaluate the opportunities for more effective governance and operations when roles are aligned in a hybrid governance model.

The May 22, 2011 Joplin, Missouri tornado caused unprecedented destruction, including this country’s first direct hit on an acute care hospital. The integrated services of Mercy Health-Joplin experienced a near complete disruption to its ability to provide hospital and physician services to its regional service area. Mercy tells its story of the first few harrowing days of response, as well as the recovery and continuing efforts to rebuild a system of care poised not to replace what was lost but to serve the clinical and service needs of its patients into the future.

Upon completion of this activity, participants should be able to identify with the challenges faced when a large-scale natural disaster produces extensive interruption to operations of a health system; delineate the multi-year process of rebuilding a health system and physician group to address the healthcare needs of today and tomorrow; and describe efforts to integrate many independent physicians who also were displaced by the disaster.

During 2004-2011, Connecticut Surgical Group (now called Hartford Specialists) and ProHealth Physicians implemented enterprise-wide risk management programs that dramatically reduced their malpractice exposures, improved patient safety, and saved millions of dollars in insurance premiums. This presentation provides a detailed roadmap of the design and implementation of the programs including their overwhelmingly positive performance results.

Upon completion of this activity, participants should be able to describe the organizational need for and the value of implementing an enterprise-wide risk management program for physician groups; evaluate the data from key performance metrics of a comprehensive risk management program; describe the positive impact of risk management/patient safety cultural changes within physician groups; and describe practical risk management best practices that can be easily be implemented to assist in reducing medico-legal risk exposures.

The cost and resources to start an EHR/Informatics service support at the medical group level can be staggering. In this presentation, Gould Medical Group will share the strategies of creating cross-functional leadership roles in administrative and EHR expertise for disseminating IT knowledge and continuing skill upgrades in the organization. They will present the key physician leadership skills critical in the IT administration and physician alignments as well as the lessons learned in establishing the existing EHR physician support model, succession management, the approaches to recover from talent loss, and the current strategies of talent retention.

Upon completion of this activity, participants should be able to evaluate and develop a process for creating a physician leadership program.

The presenters will discuss initial findings from the Anceta Diabetes Collaborative. Anceta analytics illuminate the relationship between key aspects of the process of care, patient outcomes, and relative resource use, from a patient population perspective. A new “value matrix” relates improvement in, for instance, glycemic control and management of comorbid conditions to key markers of resource use. Moving from analytics to action, the presenters will describe how medical groups are using the data to prioritize patients for outreach and intervention.

Upon completion of this activity, participants will be able to discuss how the Anceta Collaborative Data Warehouse enables AMGA members to understand variation in practice and its impact on quality and cost. They will also be able to describe the use of detailed comparative data to establish performance improvement and monitoring systems for patients with diabetes and other chronic conditions.

Over the past few years, Atrius Health has increased focus on the identification and reduction of delivery system inefficiencies contributing to unnecessarily wasteful medical expenses. This presentation will highlight the use of healthcare technology and data analytics by Atrius Health (and all of its subsidiaries) to identify cost containment opportunities and minimize delivery system inefficiencies contributing to wasteful medical expenses. It will also showcase initial results of these efforts.

Upon completion of this activity, participants should be able to identify key health IT requirements in the implementation of successful accountable and collaborative care delivery; describe the impact of actionable analytics on the outcomes of proactive care management to fragile or chronically ill individuals; and delineate the role of data-driven technologies in evaluating provider performance and managing out of ACO utilization.

As healthcare providers seek to redefine themselves as accountable care organizations, it will be crucial to examine the role technology will play, and how it will serve the need to modernize data analytics, predictive reporting, valued-based purchasing and quality-driven care management. This presentation will review one progressive medical practice’s transition in developing its HITECH infrastructure and solutions to meet these demands and to optimize shared savings. Participants will explore the types of technology, innovation, resources and services necessary to adapt and thrive in a new era of value-driven health care.

Upon completion of this activity, participants should be able to identify the barriers to effective work on quality, safety, and operations when governance structures are not aligned; identify the relevant legal and regulatory factors that need to be addressed when merging organized medical staff and group governance; and evaluate the opportunities for more effective governance and operations when roles are aligned in a hybrid governance model.

Upon recognition that the variation in appointment types was a barrier to the implementation of online patient scheduling and other remote scheduling options, Intermountain Medical Group applied quality improvement processes to address it. This presentation will explore the process that resulted in a substantial decrease in the number of appointment types and increased standardization in their pediatric, family practice, and internal medicine practice scheduling options.

Upon completion of this activity, participants should be able to develop strategies for reducing variation in their appointment scheduling options; and lead an improvement process that engages front-line staff in the problem, possible solutions, and implementation of those solutions.

The speakers will present a case study of ThedaCare’s new budget-free approach to financial and operational planning. A cross-divisional group of leaders used Lean concepts to create a financial planning process that eliminated the traditional annual budget and replaced it with a continuous forecasting process that was more nimble to a changing environment. They will demonstrate the value of the new process and how it has impacted day-to-day management.

Upon completion of this activity, participants should be able to describe alternatives to traditional budgeting and planning; and objectively consider the usefulness of their current budgeting and planning process.

Demonstrate how your hospital, health system, or practice could benefit from producing your own audio and video messaging for traditional and social media. This presentation explains how Trinity Mother Frances Hospital and Clinics in Tyler, Texas, has significantly reduced costs and increased exposure for their facilities and physicians by centralizing marketing and branding efforts through the creation of a Media and Technology Center.

Upon completion of this activity, participants should be able to identify opportunity to build brand awareness through multiple media outlets; describe the requirements of developing an in-house media service; develop and implement a plan for engaging physicians in spreading their brand; identify and train the best team members to address media opportunities effectively; and identify opportunities for free media coverage through traditional and social media.

It’s all about sustainability; in this case, sustainable delivery of primary care. This session will engage attendees in a high-level review of industry trends complemented by in-the-trenches lessons on what works―and what to avoid―in creating an integrated, physician-driven model enabled by information technology and comprehensive care teams, including an examination of various incentives, compensation models, and practice structures.

Upon completion of this activity, participants should be able to identify key turnover benchmarks and retention trends as highlighted by the Cejka Search and AMGA 2010 Physician Retention Survey; describe how to favorably position and build their primary care model in an era of healthcare reform, physician shortages, intense competition, and generational shifts; implement techniques that will provide a competitive advantage in successfully recruiting and retain primary care physicians and advanced practitioners; and evaluate the incentives, compensation models, and practice structures that can are the pillars of a sustainable primary care enterprise.

In 2007, Aurora Medical Group pioneered the concept of giving better patient access to “time-starved families,” defined as working-parent households with children. This presentation will describe their journey to transform a culture of patient access being defined by individual physician’s schedule to one defined by the needs of the patient. It will discuss challenges, lessons learned, and next steps, providing concrete tactics and processes to optimize access and change the culture.

Upon completion of this activity, participants will be able to identify the cultural characteristics necessary to improve their organization’s patient access from the patient’s perspective; apply specific tactics and processes that improve patient access; and implement monitoring techniques and follow-up action planning to assure compliance with patient access expectations.

This presentation focuses on how the integrated model of care developed by Advocate Physician Partners to align physicians, patients, and payers was successfully transitioned to an accountable care-type model, a shared savings model designed to drive enhanced collaboration among physicians, hospitals, payers, and employers. It will explore how governance, technology, financial models, evidence-based medicine, and other measures improve quality and efficiency.

Upon completion of this program, participants will be able to describe a governance structure and physician alignment model supporting cultural change for thousands of independent and employed physicians; describe a model of care that integrates all stakeholders, physicians, patients, and payers with a common goal to improve quality and value of care; design an infrastructure with proven outcomes that impacts clinical care, efficiency, medical & technological infrastructure, patient safety, and patient experience; establish a financial funding model which includes a pay-for-performance incentive, aligning physicians and improving clinical outcomes; describe the use of information technology to support all stakeholders in the delivery of care; identify how to take an existing infrastructure to the next level by incorporating Medical Home and Accountable Care guidelines; and develop a shared savings model that reduces waste and improves care coordination throughout the continuum, resulting in lower costs and more appropriate and effective care for the patient.

Many payers are implementing Health Engagement Programs to ensure all subscribers and spouses are seen by their primary care physician at least once per year. Henry Ford Medical Group has piloted one such program in conjunction with Henry Ford Health System-owned Health Alliance Plan. This presentation will review the health expenditures and quality improvement of this population before and after implementation of the program.

Upon completion of this session, participant group practices should be able to initiate a patient outreach program that will enable them to improve their ambulatory quality scores and increase patient satisfaction.

Thus, the benefits of size, geographic dispersion, and integration were not translated into improved experience, timely access, or flow for patients who required specialty consultations. This presentation will explore both the technical and cultural challenges Park Nicollet is addressing to radically improve the consultation process and implement seamless patient communication and information flow. Park Nicollet Health Services benefits from being a comprehensive highly integrated group practice. With increasing size and geographic dispersion, however, interpersonal networks began to weaken resulting in less service-oriented behaviors.

Upon completion of this activity, participants will be able to be able to identify the challenges group practices face when leveraging their integration; identify how to use the benefits of integration to bridge the change gap; and describe the techniques Park Nicollet has used to mitigate these challenges.

This presentation will review the specific Mental Health Integration (MHI) delivery strategies that have improved the efficient management and outcomes of chronic diseases and complex comorbid conditions. This includes promoting "whole health" and well being in the management of chronic disease in the primary care setting. Results will describe the cost benefit of collaborative primary and mental health care that leads to improved functional status in patients and improved satisfaction and confidence among physicians in managing mental health problems as part of routine medical care at a neutral cost with specific reduction in ER utilization. Presenters will share current results of descriptive (qualitative) and comparative analyses related to factors that promote or deter improved outcomes across medical group clinics in various stages of MHI implementation.

Upon completion of this activity, participants should be able to identify key universal medical group operational MHI measures that would promote sustained delivery of team based coordinated quality care required to prepare practices to meet the standards for integrated health homes and ACOs; explain how Intermountain’s full clinical integration model can be adapted to help local primary care redesign advance beyond speciality collocation challenges in managing the social process and cost of multiple complex chronic diseases (depression, diabetes, asthma, substance abuse, bipolar, heart disease, ADHD, CHF, obesity, chronic pain); identify key social factors among primary care providers and staff and patients that account for improved quality outcomes; describe key social factors that impede patients and their families from experiencing positive outcomes in managing their health conditions beyond the medical encounter; and define institutional norms and rules of exchange required to sustain improved quality at lower cost to our communities.

This panel discussion will provide an overview of AMGA’s healthcare agenda for Congress and the top issues affecting medical groups and physicians. Since 2012 is an election year, a snapshot of the political landscape will be presented. Other topics to be covered include the latest on ACOs, Medicare reform, including the sustainable growth rate, and healthcare current events, both legislative and regulatory.

Upon completion of this activity, participants should be able to debate current legislative issues of importance to medical groups; and discuss how to become more involved in grass roots advocacy to help promote coordinated care.