Hospitals to doctors: Can we still be friends?

Hospitals can’t survive without doctors who have a real stake in the hospital’s success. Most doctors can’t survive in small private practice. But the obvious way to mesh their interests—physician employment by hospitals or practice acquisitions—is losing its luster in many corners, so a new strain of strategic creativity is blossoming. The goal: how to work together without living together.

"More sophistication is coming to the marketplace," said Steve Messinger, a hospital strategist and managing partner at ECG Management Consultants Inc., in Arlington, Va. "It's probably through people learning hard lessons as well as gaining a better appreciation for how to work with physicians."

Hospital systems have not abandoned their quest to hire doctors, particularly primary-care doctors, because those so-called quarterbacks of healthcare can influence so many decisions and act as business-development arms. But specialist groups are troublesome, and it costs hospitals an average of $147,000 to hire a doctor of any kind.

Source: Washington Business Journal