Faculty Practice Plan Design & Performance Improvement
The faculty practice plan (FPP) is an integral component of an AMC, and a strong FPP is of critical importance to successful teaching hospitals and SOMs. Where a prosperous FPP was once determined by revenue in the tens of millions, today’s thriving FPPs are measured in revenue upward of several hundred million dollars. The financial might of today’s FPPs is matched only by the increasingly complex and sophisticated challenges they confront. Historic responsibility for management of the revenue cycle is now overshadowed by AMC demands for FPP clinical program operational and financial integration, cost-effective and patient-sensitive ambulatory care management, multidisciplinary program formation, competitive service and market diversification, and coordinated physician workforce planning.
Transforming FPPs in response to these forces requires strategic insights garnered from extensive industry experience, political skills in change management and consensus building, and technical expertise in clinical and academic business practices. Our FPP services include:
- Organizational structuring and governance design.
- Strategic and business planning.
- Inter-AMC and intra-FPP financial arrangements.
- Compensation plan design.
- FPP and departmental diagnostic performance evaluations.
- Operations improvement.
We collaborate with you to design and implement FPP solutions that advance strategies, enhance performance, and achieve measurable results.
Selected Projects
Assisting in a major restructuring of an FPP in order for it to assume delegated responsibility from the hospital for the oversight and management of the ambulatory care enterprise. Expand Minimize
This comprehensive assignment involved planning for a more sophisticated governance structure capable of exercising authority over the broad clinical practice, designing standard financial arrangements across departments, and selecting new management structures and the related operating models to foster interdisciplinary cooperation and promote a seamless continuum of care for patients. This engagement created a more empowered FPP, improved financial performance opportunities to foster faculty compensation and physician recruitment and retention, and strengthened overall satisfaction among physicians and the workforce.
Conducting a comprehensive review of a separately incorporated FPP resulting in over 30 specific, prioritized recommendations for performance improvement. Expand Minimize
Under the direction of a university Board of Trustees, ECG embarked on a collaborative process with SOM leadership, including an in-depth assessment of the practice’s organizational and ownership structure; its affiliation arrangements with the SOM; and a detailed analysis of clinical productivity and financial performance, including faculty compensation. Implementation of the recommendations began in 2009. ECG has been retained for several subsequent engagements to assist with a number of major initiatives.
Implementing a comprehensive restructuring of an FPP that involved separate incorporation from the university. Expand Minimize
This complex engagement involved executing a series of operations improvement initiatives aimed at strengthening the financial performance of the FPP in advance of its separate incorporation and promoting the success of the practice plan in its new corporate form. In addition to designing new governance and management constructs for the FPP, we assisted with the creation of accounting, human resources, and other critical administrative infrastructures necessary to support the new practice corporation.
Assisting an SOM with a comprehensive redesign of its school-based FPP. Expand Minimize
The evolution from a federated department model to a more integrated group practice involved key redesign elements including clarification of the authorities delegated by the dean and the university/SOM to the FPP, redesign of the FPP governance structure to streamline decision making, and restructure of the economic model under which the FPP and the clinical departments operate. The results of this engagement positioned the FPP for improved financial performance and marketplace success.
Eliminating an SOM-based FPP’s multimillion dollar operating deficit as part of a major financial turnaround. Expand Minimize
The year-long, multiphase engagement included a series of large-scale strategic and business development initiatives. A major initiative included redesign of ambulatory care services to colocate clinics to achieve operational and clinical efficiencies. Correcting the economic model involved enhancement to the incentive-based faculty compensation plan and development of related policies and tools to promote implementation and foster long-term maintenance of improvements. Additional initiatives included implementation of a new multidisciplinary model for the cancer center, as well as the development of new multidisciplinary centers in cardiovascular, digestive disease, and neuroscience.
