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Physician Workforce Planning
Physicians serve as the pillars upon which any successful hospital strategy must stand.
However, chronic physician shortages in many specialties and the need for additional physicians
in targeted specialties have led to increased frustrations and hinder the achievement of hospitals’
strategic goals. Whether because of regulatory requirements, strategic considerations, or community
needs, medical staff planning has become essential to hospital success.
ECG boasts an unmatched depth of expertise in medical staff planning and community needs
assessment. In 18 months alone, we conducted over 120 community need studies, providing us with a
deep understanding of specific specialties and many subspecialties for which no published industry
standards exist. Our established methodology provides analysis that supports hospital financial and
business planning needs and conforms fully with regulatory requirements.
ECG’s work on physician workforce planning and needs assessment falls within three broad categories:
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Regulatory Analysis – Hospital financial support for physician
recruiting is limited by regulatory requirements. For these projects, ECG conducts a specific analysis that
meets regulatory standards to determine community need and the extent of allowed hospital support.
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Strategic Medical Staff Planning – To achieve its program
objectives, a hospital must ensure that the physician workforce will be in place to support the services that
drive its overall strategic plan. In medical staff planning engagements, ECG identifies areas within the
medical staff organization that are candidates for expansion in light of strategic initiatives and market demand.
We also develop a physician recruitment plan that identifies recruiting priorities, key action steps, and
physician placement alternatives.
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Academic Faculty Planning – Academic medical centers (AMCs)
must ensure that they have the faculty to meet all components of their tripartite mission: teaching, research,
and clinical care. ECG’s depth of experience with AMCs enriches our analysis and recommendations as we help
AMCs define recruiting needs and develop plans to meet those needs.
A few examples of our work in this area are listed below.
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Selected Projects
- Assessing physician demand within an integrated academic/community-based health system.
The engagement entailed
assisting a multihospital, academically affiliated health system in preparing a physician resource
plan to provide guidance for the health system’s future investment in physician staff development,
recruitment, and single specialty and multispecialty clinical services.
- Conducting recruitment support analyses for a large hospital chain.
ECG was retained by one of the
nation’s largest hospital chains to provide analyses of community need to support hospital recruiting
initiatives. As a result of this engagement, we prepared more than 100 community need studies focused
on specific specialties, helping to ensure regulatory compliance for these recruiting arrangements.
- Conducting a physician needs assessment and medical staff planning for a community hospital.
ECG assisted in determining the
appropriate mix and number of physicians necessary to meet the medical needs of a small community and
in defining potential additional practice development and support initiatives
- Planning physician faculty funding levels at a major urban children’s hospital.
ECG was retained to develop
strategies to enhance the preeminence of pediatric programs at a major urban children’s hospital
through expanded clinical service delivery and pediatric-related research activities. This project
resulted in a documented strategic plan for the recruitment and funding of an appropriately sized
pediatric medical and surgical faculty and guidelines for the provision of financial support to
faculty members.
- Assisting a children’s hospital in optimally configuring its provider staffing.
The objective of this project was
to assist a children’s hospital in determining how to optimally configure faculty, resident, and
physician extender staffing to best meet the teaching and clinical needs of its residency and
clinical programs. Major activities included estimating demand for graduating physicians in the
market area; assessing the current deployment of pediatric residents by service area; developing
alternative residency rotations and clinical coverage to optimize educational and clinical experience;
and assessing the financial implications of all proposed changes. Based on our findings, we recommended
that the hospital modify the staffing configuration of selected services, minimizing the need to
increase the size of its residency program. ECG’s recommendations were approved and implemented.
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