Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/731691
105 Executive Briefing Sponsored by: The New Practitioner: 3 Health System Leaders on How Teams Are Changing the Value of Care T he conventional role of the provider is changing. Where physicians once stood alone, a team of practitioners is emerging to more efficiently provide high-value care across patient populations. These changes mean new skill sets are needed — in health ed- ucation, disease management and teamwork. Understanding and addressing this workforce change and the skills required to survive it will be essential for the success of hospitals today and tomorrow. The following health system leaders provided some perspective on how this change is playing out at their hospitals and what they are doing to stay abreast of the transformation. • Scott Nygaard, MD, CMO of Lee Memorial Health System (Fort Myers, Fla.) • Diane Postler-Slattery, PhD, President and CEO of MidMichi- gan Health (Midland) • Tim Rice, President and CEO of Lakewood Health System (Sta- ples, Minn.) Editor's note: Responses have been edited lightly for length and style. Question: How has the role of the physician or practitioner evolved over the past decade? Dr. Diane Postler-Slattery: Physicians have had to learn to work with other caregivers such as nurse practitioners, physi- cian assistants and registered nurses. They have had to learn to delegate and function at a high level with other members of the team. Physicians have also had to become versed in the busi- ness aspect of their practices as reimbursement models and regulations have changed the practice environment. Dr. Scott Nygaard: Really the challenge for physicians is learn- ing that this transformation is much more managing a team of people to provide care as opposed to thinking, "All the burden falls on me and I have to be everything to everybody." They are becoming the leaders of teams, particularly on the primary care side. Tim Rice: One of the key changes to practitioners' roles is in- creased accountability — all the accountability expectations to be compliant and meet quality and cost standards. The inter- esting thing is how this increased accountability has impacted the time with patients and quality of life. It includes a lot more EHR documentation, collecting and reviewing data. Entering everything electronically takes a lot more time, so physicians are getting out of work two to three hours later. Their quality of life and time with family is declining. Q: What skill sets are essential for practitioners today that were not as pressing 10 years ago? SN: We used to think we were the masters of knowledge. Now we are trying to help people navigate the avenues of access to information they have. We are helping patients discern the information they have collected before a visit — often, patients have in hand so much information they are more studied than the physician. The practitioner's job is to partner with patients and help them navigate decision-making based on their values, wants and needs. DPS: Clearly, strong clinical skills are still absolutely critical. Because of the emerging team environment, skills like com- munication, trust, delegation, collaboration and networking with patients and colleagues are now more important than 10 years ago. TR: Having a high EQ, or emotional quotient, is one essential skill for practitioners today. It basically is the ability to under- stand people. Now every provider who comes here [to Lake- wood] has to take an EQ test. This helps us get to the next skill, which is the ability to work as a team. It's such an important skill set today to be effective in all that is changing. Lastly, providers need to have the ability to know how to adapt to change. Q: How has technology specifically shaped the role of to- day's caregiver team? SN: We are finally getting into an area of analytics where a lot of data fragments are getting organized in a manner that leads to better insights about patient care. Demographic, clinical, so- cioeconomic information and bio-surveillance information on infection — all kinds of information can now better the patient and their care. Even though 'population heath' is a buzzword among provid- ers, from the patient perspective healthcare is still one patient at a time. It used to be if physicians had a patient in front of them, and it took 15 to 20 minutes to find information, they might reorder tests — adding more costs — because it was easier than finding the information. Now this information is organized in a way that practitioners can bring up a screen and see gaps in care or the need for certain tests. It makes them more efficient and effective as a team. DPS: The EHR has brought so many changes, not only in practi- tioners' daily tasks, but also in the way they do them. They have access to so much data to help manage patient care. They can take a look at a patient's record and see trending information, vi- tal stats or lab data. The fact they can see all of that has helped practitioners today make better decisions regarding interventions