2007 Top Leadership Teams Winners

Erickson Advantage, Baltimore, MD
Managed Care Plans

BETTER CARE, LOWER COSTS

John Erickson’s goal has always been to create a nurturing, caring, comprehensive retirement community. That was his dream when he opened his first Erickson Retirement Community in the Baltimore area in 1983, and that was the reason his company partnered with EverCare/UnitedHealthcare to create Erickson Advantage Health Plan.

Erickson Advantage is a Medicare waiver demonstration project and a first-of-its-kind health plan. The interdisciplinary, geriatric health plan is available to more than 20,000 residents at the 19 Erickson Retirement Communities that spread from the East Coast to Denver.

Erickson Advantage has grown from 32 members at its launch in October 2005 to more than 2,000 by July 2007—and the company hopes to reach 2,500 members by the end of the year. Erickson, founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Erickson Retirement Communities, says the health plan is an extension of his company’s goals of providing residents with a complete retirement—while also controlling healthcare costs. “Erickson Advantage is a way to improve the healthcare our seniors get,” says Erickson.

Melding together two varied companies—a private management company and a large, publicly traded insurer—has been a more natural fit than one might expect. In fact, Erickson officials say the different cultures work collaboratively to form a creative environment.

“I think that has also been one of our initial successes,” says Bruce Sturm, senior vice president of EAHP, who negotiated the strategic partnership and led the team through the startup. “It brings about a creative environment where you recognize the different ways and you learn from each other.”

Though only two years into the project, EAHP officials are already seeing results. Pointing to one community in particular, the company’s Riderwood campus in Silver Spring, MD, Erickson says the number of hospital days per 1,000 residents is less than half of traditional Medicare numbers. Erickson says those numbers are particularly impressive given that EAHP’s members are older than the typical Medicare beneficiary.

Sturm links the short stays primarily to the program’s hands-on management approach for admissions and care coordination, improved communication via electronic medical records, and EAHP’s unique ability to return members to an independent living environment where they have support services that are not available under traditional Medicare.

Replicating the EAHP model throughout the country could mean significant Medicare savings, says Sturm. “Think about the implication of that on a broader scale,” says Sturm.

Erickson is hopeful the federal government will see the benefits of the demonstration project and make it and EAHP a permanent part of the Medicare program.

“We want to help the Medicare program recognize better ways to provide better care,” says Sturm. “Being pioneers and solving challenges every day has proven to be a great environment to work in.”

—Les Masterson

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Radiological Associates of Sacramento Medical Group, Sacramento, CA
Medical Group Practices

EMPLOYER OF CHOICE

A strong leadership team can’t successfully lead a medical group without a talented, dedicated staff willing to follow. Recognizing that teamwork must permeate throughout the organization, the six-person administrative team at Radiological Associates of Sacramento Medical Group agreed on a mission: to be the “employer of choice,” as well as the preeminent imaging services provider, in the greater Sacramento area.

What makes RAS’ initiative stand out is the environment in which it occurred. When reimbursement cuts and staffing shortages were pushing other providers to eliminate unprofitable services or pinch pennies, RAS poured money into an internal marketing campaign, offered up to $6,000 employee referral bonuses for hard-to-fill technical positions and up to $12,000 sign-on bonuses for new recruits, set up a $15,000, two-year scholarship program for employees who want to become technicians, and continued to invest in facility and equipment upgrades.

The transformation began in 2003, when RAS hired an outside firm to conduct its first employee satisfaction survey. Many groups would have been satisfied with ranking in the top 10 percent of all healthcare organizations—particularly if they were managing 750 employees and more than 70 physicians spread out over 15 diagnostic and nuclear imaging centers and seven radiation oncology offices. But the RAS administrative team concluded that wasn’t good enough given the industrywide shortages of radiologic technologists and other key positions, says Fred Gaschen, the group’s executive vice president.

The team started with basic budgetary questions: “Where do we put our money? Should we cut back?” The conclusion, Gaschen says, was to focus on the long-term success of the organization and not obsess over short-term financials. “We’ve taken the high road and said if it means less profitability for the physician owners, so be it, as long as we are continuing to move in the right direction,” he says.

The team pitched new ideas and shared success stories in weekly two-hour administrative meetings. For daily administration, RAS encouraged team leaders to walk a few feet to their peers’ office for one-on-one interaction, rather than communicate through e-mail or over the phone.

The close teamwork and willingness to invest paid off, Gaschen says. When employees were resurveyed in 2006, ratings had gone up in all of the 44 survey categories. The RAS leadership team has lowered turnover in an industry in which 25 percent to 35 percent turnover isn’t uncommon, and it has reduced its number of locums employees from 14 to two.

All of this occurred while the group’s revenues continued to grow almost 300 percent over nine years. “That’s kind of like proof in the pudding that the emphasis on employee satisfaction and employee input in the operations has had a positive impact on our overall business, because we continue to see month over month, year over year, increased patient volumes,” Gaschen says.

—Elyas Bakhtiari