Case Study 2:

A group practice administrator with many years of experience is used to a seat-of-the-pants approach to running the practice, In the past, with a rapidly growing health care marketplace and relatively few competitors, she was able to succeed admirably with this approach. After attending a continuing education session on the future of health care sponsored by the Medical Group Management Ass., however, the administrator realized that her management style must change to face future realities. In the past, hard work and an ad hoc approach were adequate for dealing with events as they happened; in the future, it will be necessary to anticipate events.

Healthcare transformation is accelerating to the point where hospitals provide care primarily to the most acute, critical are/trauma needs of the population. Healthcare delivery in ambulatory care position of importance as a priority for health care systems across the country

The practice and its board and physicians have followed the administrator's seat-of-the-pants lead and taken things pretty much as they have occurred. They too are aware that health care is changing, but they are less aware than the administrator of what these changes are and how fast they are occurring. The administrator now recognizes that if the practice is to be successful in the future, it will have to be much more aggressive in many ways and especially in conducting top-notch strategic planning. The administrator also recognizes that many of the physicians in the practice, especially the senior ones, are set in their ways and will not jump on the bandwagon for a planning, marketing, and similar activities needed to embrace more treatment options in ambulatory care, even though there is really no alternative.

1. How should the administrator go about getting everyone in the practice interested in and involved in planning for more treatment options in the practice to meet the demands of this urgent care practice?

2. How can the administrator build for the future care needs with physicians and administrators whose thinking is based on a past that no longer exists?

All answers should include citations from previous articles from this course.