Becker's Hospital Review

23 23 CEO/STRATEGY Cleveland Clinic CEO: Being salaried without tenure helps us offer personalized care By Morgan Haefner A s tension grows between standard- ization and personalization across all businesses, Forbes contributor Glenn Llopis asked the CEO of Cleveland Clinic how he maintains standards while en- couraging individual contribution. Tom Mihaljevic, MD, CEO and president of Cleveland Clinic, told Mr. Llopis in an ar- ticle published Jan. 5 that three things help address issues of personalization across the global health system: salaried physicians, viewing all team members as caregivers and rewarding what's done right. Dr. Mihaljevic expanded on how having sala- ried providers improves personalization: "We have only one-year contracts, and none of us is tenured," he told Mr. Llopis. "e CEO does not have a long-term con- tract either. So that means that I've renewed my contract 15 times; I hope to renew it 16 times. Each one of us undergoes the yearly evaluation, so it's a very complex process. But for us to be salaried and so patient-centric has really helped us address all these issues [of personalization]." In addition, Dr. Mihaljevic said referring to all workers as caregivers rather than by their title means the value of each person is based on their character and not their rank. He added that annual performance reviews don't concentrate on how much someone did, but rather what they did right. "We have never rewarded our employees for doing more, we have always rewarded them for doing the right thing. Our annual per- formance reviews for physicians don't reflect the volume of work they do but rather the quality of work they do — the way they in- teract with their peers, with their residents, with their patients. en, obviously, their ac- ademic contribution and contribution to the greater organization." n HealthPartners begins 300 job cuts amid closure of pharmacies By Kelly Gooch H ealthPartners has closed pharmacies within three of its medical clinics: Park Nicollet Clinic and Cen- tral Minnesota Clinic in Minneapolis and Stillwater (Minn.) Medical Group Clinic, according to TV station KARE. HealthPartners, a nonprofit healthcare provider and insur- er in Bloomington, Minn., announced in November 2019 it would close its retail pharmacies and shut down its mail-or- der pharmacy operations this year. The closure will include 30 retail pharmacies within Health- Partners and three of its medical clinics. The pharmacies in the medical clinics closed Jan. 20, while HealthPartners re- tail pharmacies are slated to close April 1. Overall, about 300 people will lose their jobs, including 100 pharmacists. "Our retail pharmacies have provided a convenient option for our patients for many years," Scott Schnuckle, senior vice president for pharmacy business at HealthPartners, told KARE. "Consumer preferences and pharmacy econom- ics have changed, however, to favor large-scale organiza- tions able to support extended hours, drive-thru pickup, and other conveniences we're not able to offer. Like others preceding us in our market, we've made the difficult deci- sion to exit our retail pharmacy operation." HealthPartners told the TV station it will continue to oper- ate specialty, infusion and hospital pharmacies, as well as health plan pharmacy management and medication thera- py management services. n Amazon hires a lung physician for its primary care program By Alia Paavola A mazon has hired a high-profile public health expert and pulmonary medicine physician to support Amazon Care, a primary care program launched last September, according to CNBC. The e-commerce giant plans to add Vin Gupta, MD, as principal scientist to its Amazon Care team in January. Dr. Gupta, who describes himself as a lung physician, previously worked as a consultant for Apple. He com- pleted his medical training in pulmonary and intensive care medicine at Boston-based Brigham & Women's Hospital. Dr. Gupta later went on to practice as a de- ployable critical care air transport physician for the Unit- ed States Air Force, according to his LinkedIn page. He also has penned articles on public health topics for NBC and The New York Times. Dr. Gupta has served as a health policy researcher and assistant professor at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle. Dr. Gupta joins a growing list of high-profile medical pro- fessionals hired to support Amazon Care, including tele- medicine expert Kristi Henderson, CNBC reported. Amazon Care is a virtual medical clinic for Amazon em- ployees based near its Seattle headquarters that pro- vides health advice and medical visits via an app. There is also an option to request an in-person consultation. n

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