RECONSIDERING PHYSICIAN EMPLOYMENT

ECG Management Consultants, June 20, 2005

Hospitals understandably became very leery about physician employment after the bubble burst on the practice acquisition boom of the 1990s. Now that the dust has settled, some of them are revisiting the strategy and deciding it is right for them. And for those health systems that persevered in employing physicians, this tactic is turning out to have more benefits-albeit completely different ones-than originally envisioned. Employing physicians can address a host of vital objectives, such as providing a vehicle for recruiting increasingly scarce specialists and jumpstarting service line development. Having learned from their previous mistakes, health systems today are employing physicians selectively, and under much different circumstances than before. BY: ECG Management Consultants Seattle, WA, Boston, MA, Washington, DC, San Diego, CA www.ecgmc.com (PDF format - click here to download the latest version of acrobat reader)