You are a management accountant for a growing hospital network in the Southeast. The hospital network has recently expanded by acquiring several independent medical practices. The network will retain the physicians from the practices but will make administrative changes to improve their efficiency and profitability.

Preliminary patient feedback indicates that while the patients really like the quality of care that the new physicians provide and appreciate the time the physicians spend with each patient, they are unhappy about the amount of time they are forced to spend in the waiting rooms which often exceeds 40 minutes. The wait times are a concern to the hospital network since the national average is only 18 minutes and internal research shows that lengthy wait times are associated with patients switching to other hospital networks.

Describe a performance measurement and incentive system that you believe would motivate the new physicians to work faster but still maintain the quality of patient care. Identify specific performance measures that you believe are relevant to evaluating physician performance in this setting and how you would link these performance measures to incentives. If your proposed system creates additional risks, be sure to identify how you intend to mitigate the risks.