Becker's Hospital Review

69 FINANCE CMO / CARE DELIVERY Novant physicians: Atrium Health physicians splitting gave us 'courage' to leave By Alyssa Rege T wo leaders spearheading a group of more than 40 physicians to split from Win- ston-Salem, N.C.-based Novant Health said a similar situation at a competing health system inspired them to make the change, ac- cording to e Charlotte Observer. Ehab Sharawy, MD, and David Cook, MD, spoke with e Charlotte Observer to shed some light on the group's decision to leave Novant Health. Dr. Sharawy said the group of 42 physicians have enjoyed a good relation- ship with Novant but feel it's time to move into independent practice. "I wouldn't say anything negative about our relationship with Novant Health. We spent many years doing things with Novant Health and will continue along that road. But coming into independent practice gives us a little more self-determination to move toward the things that we want to do," he said. "e main reason why we want to break away ... is that we want to be clearly 100 percent focused on the patient in delivering the best care that we can." e physicians announced their intent to leave the health system in January. ey initially said they would officially split with the system in May but pushed the deadline up to March. e Novant physicians mark the second wave of providers in less than a year to split with a major hospital system in favor of independent practice. Last year, a group of about 92 physi- cians broke with Charlotte, N.C.-based Atrium Health's medical group to form an indepen- dent practice called Tryon Medical Partners. Dr. Cook said that while the Novant physi- cians had been planning to leave since last year, the Atrium physicians inspired them to make the move. "We did look at them and sort of garner some of their courage to do this. Our decision was long in coming. I'd say 25 years in coming," Dr. Cook said. Both physicians said they believe more phy- sicians will seek out independent practice in the coming years and that the trend is "not a blip," according to the report. "e national trend is that you cannot sustain this expense any longer. Physicians, the burn- out is extraordinary. Patient satisfaction is of- ten down as they feel, too, like a widget," Dr. Cook said. "I think you'll see in Charlotte oth- ers do the same as Tryon and our groups." n How an orchestra helps Texas Medical Center physicians relieve burnout By Alyssa Rege I n addition to working long hours and caring for patients, sev- eral physicians and staff from Texas Medical Center in Hous- ton have come together to form an orchestra. The Doctors Orchestra of Houston was founded in 2000 and is one of few community orchestras in the nation that has health professionals as musicians. The group performs concerts in lobby of Houston Methodist Hospital, various locations inside Texas Medical Center and pre- mier concert halls across the city. The orchestra has won several awards, including the American Prize in Orchestra Performance in the community orchestra division for the 2016-17 season. It was named runner up the following year. "This is an absolutely quality orchestra and we want to get the secret out," the orchestra's Executive Director Ken Sebek said in a statement. "Medical professionals have inherent talents, their intensity and focus, that lend themselves so much to classical music. They are working much more than 8 to 5. They're focused on the health of humans and to make the world better and healthy, so this is a chance for them to release some of this inherent pressure they have in their day-to-day lives and enjoy themselves," he added. n Match Day 2019 largest in history — 4 notes By Alyssa Rege T his year's Match Day, which took place March 15, was the largest in history, according to the National Resident Matching Program, which operates the residency program application system. A record-number 38,376 applicants submitted ap- plications for the 35,185 available residency pro- grams — the most available in the program's history. Four notes on Match Day 2019: 1. The number of available first-year positions rose to 32,194, a 6.5 percent increase from the number available positions last year. 2. Of the 32,194 positions available for first-year res- idents, 15,946 were for primary care specialties like family medicine, internal medicine and pediatrics. 3. A record number of MD medical students applied for residency positions (18,925 applicants). Of those 18,925 applicants, 93.9 percent or 17,763 appli- cants, matched into a program. 4. This year's match also saw a record number of 6,001 DO applicants, an increase of more than 1,384 applicants from 2018. Of those 6,001 applicants, 84.6 percent, or 5,076 applicants matched into a first-year residency program. n

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