Our Vision of Physicians In Healthcare

In today's health care world the major players are insurance companies, government, hospitals, physicians and pharmaceutical companies. Over time, a pecking order has developed in the health care economy. Some organizations define the way the healthcare system is organized, managed and run. Other service providers are told where they fit and how they should behave.

Too often medical groups lose to one of the other players in the competition to organize the healthcare delivery system. Some insurance companies, hospitals and, even, pharmaceutical companies have tried to make physician care a commodity. When this effort is successful, it is disastrous for the doctors and their patients.

We at MediSync believe that it is critical to the healthcare delivery system for physicians to successfully play a major role in healthcare; to NOT be relegated to commodity status.

We think that physician success is important for doctors but especially for patients. Physicians are uniquely positioned to improve the delivery of health care through improvements in the quality of care provided to patients, and in making it cost effective for all who pay it.

However, in order to take their rightful place physicians MUST be ORGANIZED, and their organizations must achieve HIGH LEVELS OF PERFORMANCE (see Six Sigma in Healthcare).

Small Physician Groups

There are some physicians who believe that they can achieve high levels of importance in the very large healthcare economy — $1.5 TRILLION annually and rising — organized in solo or very small practices. MediSync respectfully disagrees that physicians who are unorganized and in small groups cannot play a meaningful role — except in the most rural situation or the case of sub-subspecialties.

Larger Physician Groups

We find other physicians who believe that they can achieve meaningful results merely by organizing into large organizations. Having a larger medical group is a means to a good end, but it is not the end. Large organizations that perform poorly do not make a good impression on patients, employers or other players in the healthcare economy.

The Right Combination

The combination that works best, as we see it, is for physicians to be in a practice organization that is large enough to make a difference regionally, AND has dedicated itself to high levels of performance in all areas — clinical care, service quality to patients and financial performance for the physicians.

MediSync was created to help physicians who have that vision in mind.

Updated - September 22, 2006 (AM)