Part of promoting physician collaboration is boosting a shared purpose such as providing patient-centered care, this new CMO says.
A CMO should be engaged in promoting physician collaboration, according to the new CMO of AdventHealth Apopka hospital.
Max Baumgardner, DO, became the new CMO of AdventHealth Apopka on June 2. Prior to assuming his current position, he served in several leadership roles at AdventHealth, including working as facility medical director at AdventHealth Altamonte, AdventHealth Lake Mary, and AdventHealth Oviedo. Baumgardner has a clinical background as an emergency medicine physician and has served in leadership roles overseeing multiple emergency departments at AdventHealth.
A primary element of promoting physician collaboration is having a shared purpose such as aligning physicians to the mission of providing patient-centered care, according to Baumgardner.
"It involves building relationships between physicians and leadership, which involves building trust and inclusion with our physician leaders," Baumgardner says. "It also involves being able to share actionable data with our clinicians regarding important topics that improve patient care and experience."
Building trust and inclusion among physicians requires listening to them and involving them in decision-making, Baumgardner explains.
"When we have a problem, the people who are most likely to have good ideas on fixing the problem are the people who are closest to the issue," Baumgardner says. "The more that we engage with our frontline physicians and leaders to seek their feedback for solutions, the more likely we are to have support for solutions and be more successful as a team."
In leveraging data to promote physician collaboration, CMOs and other healthcare leaders need to share performance on key metrics to ensure that physicians are meeting or exceeding national standards for evidence-based practice, according to Baumgardner.
"We share this data with our physicians so that they do not have blind spots or miss opportunities to improve the care they deliver to patients," Baumgardner says.
Another element of promoting physician collaboration is having aligned incentives such as using scorecards and metrics to bolster patient-centered care and the best quality outcomes, Baumgardner explains.
"This allows us to have collaboration on our shared goals," Baumgardner says.
Max Baumgardner, DO, is the new CMO of AdventHealth Apopka hospital. Photo courtesy of AdventHealth.
Improving patient experience
In the hospital setting, joint rounding by physicians and nurses is a primary strategy for improving patient experience, according to Baumgardner.
"When physicians do MD-RN rounding, it is extremely valuable for them and their patients," Baumgardner says. "They garner information. They have improved care plans. There are also less errors and follow-up calls to adjust for issues that were not brought up in the absence of team-based rounding."
MD-RN rounding not only improves patient experience but also improves clinician and nurse experience because they can work together as a team as opposed to a fragmented care model, according to Baumgardner.
The best practices for MD-RN rounding include asking patients about how they are doing and prompting patients to ask questions about their care, Baumgardner explains.
"Physicians and nurses should ask questions about discharge or follow-up care issues," Baumgardner says. "They should review all pertinent tests or diagnostics. For patients and their families, they feel that they are included in decision-making, which generally results in productive conversations at the bedside."
CMOs and hospital financial performance
CMOs can play an important role in boosting the financial performance of their hospitals.
One way hospital CMOs can boost financial performance is by optimizing patient throughput, according to Baumgardner.
"CMOs need to understand how they can take care of patients in a timely manner and provide them with great quality care whether that is in the emergency room or in the hospital wards," Baumgardner says. "A key factor is reducing length of stay."
CMOs should be aware of costs and look at high-value care items or alternatives to high-cost treatments that are just as effective, Baumgardner explains. CMOs can also look for quality savings opportunities such as avoiding penalties for hospital readmissions.
"We can provide quality care in the hospital, but we want to make sure that discharged patients continue to receive quality care as an outpatient to stay healthy outside of the hospital," Baumgardner says.
Lastly, CMOs can also help promote strategic growth through partnership with the rest of the C-suite, which gives a hospital an opportunity for financial growth, Baumgardner explains.
"A CMO needs to understand what is needed in a hospital's market compared to what is offered at competing hospitals," Baumgardner says. "In addition, a CMO must understand the capabilities of their medical staff and hospital to support strategic growth initiatives."
Christopher Cheney is the CMO editor at HealthLeaders.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Building trust and inclusion among physicians is an element of promoting physician collaboration.
In the hospital setting, joint rounding by physicians and nurses is a primary strategy for improving patient experience.
CMOs can help improve hospital financial performance in several ways, including optimizing patient throughput, reducing readmissions to avoid reimbursement penalties, and helping to promote strategic growth.