Health systems can improve physician engagement through data and evidence. Here are our key recommendations.

An increasing number of physicians today prefer hospital employment over private practice. The underlying reasons vary from gaining practical exposure to access to rich data in cost-effective manner. However, this does not really mean that they became quality and cost champions for their health systems overnight. Instead, they have had to work day and night, collaborating around key priorities related to reduced costs and improved quality, to be able to reach at this level.

Driving Force Behind Decision Making

300 physicians were surveyed by Lumere to gain insight into the driving factors behind decision making in healthcare systems. Three important findings were revealed:

• Physicians need access to the richest data available to improve quality of care
• Patient outcomes and clinical success must necessarily be a part of every conversation with physicians when discussing and delivering value-based care
• Physician payment models that tie outcomes to compensation do not necessarily ensure a sensitivity to costs of care

The Importance of Data

Data plays a lead role in making cost-effective decisions. According to a recent survey, 91 percent of physicians identified that access to cost data is the ultimate tool to improve quality of care. However, unfortunately only 40 percent stated that their systems were actively taking steps to ensure this availability of data. A direct correlation was found between physician experience with managing financial performance and the impact of cost data on clinical behavior. Moreover, veteran doctors generally identified cost data as more influential as compared to less experienced physicians.

Along with cost data, Lumere’s survey found physicians are increasingly likely to incorporate clinical evidence and peer-reviewed literature into their drug and device selection process. As many as 54 percent of survey participants identified it as “extremely” or “very important.” Furthermore, 56 percent of the participants believed that physicians should be involved in creating evidence-based clinical protocols, practice guidelines, and best practices at their healthcare organizations.

Remember, Change is the Only Constant

Embracing change whole-heartedly is perhaps the most important component of effective decision making. Healthcare systems that are seeking to improve physician engagement with data and evidence have essentially three possible follow-up strategies:

• Assess current information sharing process and protocols – Healthcare organizations must conduct a thorough analysis of the current state of data management. Many healthcare systems fail at securing and sharing accurate and meaningful data. Also, the entire process of creating a streamlined approach can itself be particularly intimidating, given the multiple layers of data collection, changing and varied physician needs and vast clinical evidence.
• Compare existing evidence-based guidelines to the data – Physicians are increasingly becoming involved on the finance side of healthcare. Hence, deploying a patients-first approach, rationale decisions must be made, influenced by clinical outcomes, and linked to the overall clinical improvement efforts.
• Decide the right type and flow of data – The way forward entails ensuring that the physicians enjoy a strong say in determining what data to share and how to share it. A value-based approach is frequently preferred and consistent benchmarks keep them focused on their organizational goals.

Geisinger Health System – Case in Point

The perfect manifestation of data-driven cost and quality decisions is perhaps the Pennsylvania-based 13-hospital system, Geisinger Health System. Constant efforts of operationalizing evidence-based medicine have helped active physician engagement, which has resulted in massive benefits for the system at large.

In 2016, Geisinger Health System decided to revamp its supply chain process to overcome the overwhelming current issues including enterprise-level oversight. The emphasis remained physician engagement, and this was done through the introduction of evidence into the process. For instance, the team identified an opportunity to standardize the procurement of devices for shoulder replacement procedures in 2018. While the surgeons initially used devices from up to 10 vendors to perform their procedures, they were able standardize to 8vendors through evidence-based decision making; determining benchmark pricing, managing vendor claims of product differentiation, etc.

As healthcare systems continue to increasingly incorporate value-based care into their care delivery models, hospitals are also simultaneously striving to actively engage physicians to make the more effective evidence-based decisions to remain at the forefront. And this is just the beginning.