Becker's Hospital Review

31 CMO / CARE DELIVERY recruit and retain the best providers, we must also remain steadfast in our efforts toward financial recovery aer the pandemic. Our labor and supply chain expenses are significantly higher while revenue has been negatively impacted. We have to look for ways to deal with the financial and operational strains while continuing to provide high-quality care to the community we serve. Connie Savor Price, MD. Chief Medical Officer of Denver Health: With the current workforce shortages, "tripledemic" and everyday demands, the challenge of burnout in healthcare should be at the top of every hospital CMO's to-do list right now. Many healthcare workers are leaving the profession, further compounding shortages. ose who remain are experiencing mental health impacts from the unrelenting pressures of their daily work. Marilouise Venditti, MD. Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer at AtlantiCare (Egg Harbor Township, N.J.): We must provide physicians and other providers with meaningful continuing education to help them grow in their roles and responsibilities. We also have to encourage a multidisciplinary approach to care in which all members of the clinical and support teams focus on what care is most appropriate for individual patients. And, also, continually ask yourself: "What will our patients need next?" Dave Williams, MD. Chief Clinical Officer and Senior Vice President of UnityPoint Health (Des Moines, Iowa): With workplace violence incidents escalating and staffing shortages across the board in healthcare right now, prioritizing the well-being of our care teams is at the top of my to-do list. ere's no question our teams are resilient, but when you figure in three years battling a pandemic and a major increase in additional respiratory illnesses, it's a lot. ese are human beings first, and that kind of stress takes a toll on anyone. We need to re-engage our physicians, nurses and clinicians at all levels by tapping into why they chose to spend their lives in healthcare in the first place — a passion for caring for people. ey deserve our immense gratitude and frequent reminders of the incredibly valuable role they play in people's lives. n 'It's becoming so difficult:' Community hospitals will flock to health systems, says Vandalia Health CEO By Alan Condon D avid Ramsey, president and CEO of Charleston, W.Va.-based Vandalia Health, expects healthcare cost pressures to force more community hospitals to join larger health systems, MetroNews reported Jan. 16. "The cost of doing business, the cost of the computer systems to operate a physician practice, the cost of the insurance to operate a physician practice, the same thing for hospitals, it's becoming so difficult that they are consolidating," Mr. Ramsey told the news outlet. His comments come on the back of Charleston (W.Va.) Area Medical Center's acquisition of Ronceverte, W.Va.-based Greenbrier Valley Medical Center from Community Health Systems. Charleston Area Medical Center is part of Vandalia Health, which also signed a definitive agreement on Jan. 12 to acquire Plateau Medical Center in Oak Hill. Mr. Ramsey said Vandalia is competing with WVU Medicine in the growth area, but acknowledged that health systems acquiring community hospitals is a trend that is occuring in several states, according to the report. n Productivity varies between physicians and NPs, economists suggest By Mariah Taylor A study led by two economists suggested nurse practitioners may be less productive than physicians in the emergency department setting. The study, which is not peer-reviewed, examined Veterans Health Administration administrative health records between January 2017 and January 2020. Nurse practitioners have been able to practice independently at VA facilities since 2016. Researchers analyzed 1.1 million cases from 44 different emergency department sites. The study included 156 NPs and 1,348 physicians. Economists David Chan, MD, PhD, and Yiqun Chen, PhD, who are both affiliated scholars at the National Bureau of Economic Research, looked at two primary indicators of productivity: resource use and patient outcomes. The report found the following: • Nurse practitioners increase length of stay by 11 percent. • Nurse practitioners raise the cost of ED care by 7 percent. • Nurse practitioners raise 30-day preventable hospitalizations by 20 percent. • Nurse practitioners decreased opioid prescriptions by 1.8 percent. • Nurse practitioners increased antibiotic prescriptions by 4 percent. "However, we also find productivity variation within each of the professions that are even larger than the difference between professions," Drs. Chan and Chen said. "While physicians have occupied a dominant position in society since the turn of the 20th century, the rising demand for healthcare in an aging population and the limited supply of physicians have set the stage for the rise of NPs to challenge the monopoly of physicians over the independent provision of medical care," they added. n

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