The
Hospital Care Consultants Model:
Every Hospital is Unique
Although we
recognize the importance of accommodating each client hospital’s
unique needs, there are several aspects of the Hospital Care
Consultants model that we consistently implement to ensure
successful hospital medicine programs:
Program
Management
Hospital Care
Consultants believes that communication is the most important
service we can provide to our client hospitals.
Communication is vital to the senior management of the
hospitals, clinical nursing staff, case management, medical records,
emergency department, medical staff, and ancillary service
personnel. Hospital Care
Consultants believes that hands on, face-to-face communication with
these stakeholders is crucial to the success of our programs.
Members of our management and operations team visit each
client hospital every month to facilitate this communication.
Support Team
Our client
hospitals receive support from a full-time, on-site medical director
of hospital medicine - a practicing physician who also is
experienced in the day-to-day structure of hospital medicine.
This physician receives
extensive support from our services support team, providing
recruiting, scheduling, credentialing and other administrative
services. Our client
hospitals have an on-site patient care coordinator to support the
patients, the physicians, and handle administrative needs.
Hospitalist
Recruitment and Retention
Hospital Care
Consultants has one of the highest physician satisfaction rates in
the industry, enabling us to maintain high levels of staffing and
minimal turnover for our client hospitals. Our team of seasoned
recruiters combined with aggressive print, direct mail, Internet and
trade show marketing efforts enables us to recruit some of the
nation’s top hospitalists. Once a part of our organization, we are
able to retain physicians as a result of our competitive
incentive-based compensation, professional liability insurance,
first class benefits, 401-K plan, profit-sharing programs,
commitment to ongoing CME, and growth and development opportunities
within Hospital Care Consultants.
Primary Care
Physician Relationships
Regular and
efficient communication between the hospitalists and the primary
care physicians (PCPs) is essential to the success of any hospital
medicine program. Within 24 hours, our hospitalists dictate all
clinical records, including History and Physicals, consult notes and
discharge summaries. Our on-site patient care coordinator
facilitates communication of admissions, changes in a patient’s
status, and discharges from the hospitalist to the patient’s PCP.
Our hospitalists do not have outpatient practices and are
responsible for treating hospitalized patients only.
They do not compete with the PCPs. Once discharged, a patient
returns to the care of their PCP.
Satisfaction
Programs
HCC conducts
satisfaction surveys with patients, their families, medical staff
and referring physicians. This essential feedback enables us to
continually adjust the fit of our program to various stakeholders
and immediately address any issues and concerns.
Electronic
Service Capture
Through a
relationship with IngeniousMed, one of the top developers of point
of service software solutions, HCC provides electronic data capture
from the bedside to the billing company. This product improves the
documentation process, ensuring compliance, maximizing completeness
and timeliness of billing and collections, and optimizing
reimbursement.
Productivity
Reports
Through our
data capture system, we are capable of providing a number of reports
to the hospital, including information related to lengths of stay,
readmission rates, and charges by diagnosis, to name a few. These
reports can be provided to our client hospitals based upon their
individual needs. Our client hospitals also have the unique benefit
of being able to compare their data with other hospitals in the
Hospital Care Consultants hospital medicine network.
Marketing
Hospital Care
Consultants works with the hospital to market the hospitalist
services to the medical staff. Through formal presentations and
one-on-one meetings, our staff works with the general medical staff
and the department of medicine of our client hospitals. We also
distribute a brochure describing our program to all medical staff
members. In addition, we
provide a separate brochure prepared specifically for the patients
and their families to educate them on the hospital medicine concept
and how it benefits them.
Case
Management / Discharge Planning
Hospital Care Consultants believes that discharge planning with a patient begins at the time of admission. Each of our physicians is trained to set and manage the patient discharge expectations from the first time the patient is seen. Hospital medicine programs are most effective when a full-time case manager is integrated into the program. We offer various staffing options for this individual, who will work closely with the hospitalist and social worker to ensure continuity of care for each patient; orchestrate discharge planning; conduct utilization reviews; track readmissions; follow-up on ancillary services; and communicate with patients, their families and community physicians.