As leaders of the care team, physicians rightfully take their role in driving patient outcomes very seriously. This is equally true when practices pursue value-based care. To succeed in these arrangements, physicians must continue to act as the “captain” of a patient’s care; however, they also must leverage the skill sets of their full team to support early identification of conditions, care plan execution, and ongoing patient monitoring and treatment.
Leveraging the care team to their full potential can be a challenge. Many organizations place the entire responsibility for risk capture and patient management on physicians. Unfortunately, this not only overburdens even the most dedicated providers, it also results in missed diagnoses, insufficient documentation and risk capture, and suboptimal reimbursement.
Conversely, when every staff member works at the top of their license and shares responsibility for identifying, documenting, and managing patient conditions, it creates a collaborative, purpose-driven environment that enables reliable care management and promotes accurate risk capture and reimbursement. Practices that pursue this team-based approach also see greater staff satisfaction and retention because staff feel more connected to each other and fulfilled by their work.
