Physician Leader Coach Series: Health Care Strategy and Enterprise Risk

It is not a stretch to state that absent the active involvement of physician leaders, health systems will put at risk the value of their market reputations, financial stability and perhaps even viability. This six-part series by health care strategy consultant Daniel K. Zismer, PhD, offers an introduction to an important competency for physician leaders with skills to help navigate strategy and risk.

Part 1: Managing the Productivity of Enterprise and Risk Strategy: U.S. health systems face increasing pressures on price, service, customer experience, asset efficiency, performance, total costs of care and strategic asset productivity.

Part 2: Accountability for Health Care Leaders as Officers: Increasingly, legal theory warns that all with significant authority in a corporate organization who carry a lofty title such as “officer” may find themselves accountable for the acts of the organization, regardless of apparent confines of specific duties identified within any written job description of a CMO.

Part 3: Clinically Integrated Network Strategy and the Role of Physician Leaders: Physician leaders should be closest to the organization’s brand promises involving patient care, and so they are best positioned to understand and call attention to whether the system delivers.

Part 4: Operating Economics of Employed Providers in Integrated Health Systems: It is a weak assumption that if employed physicians just stay busy, the financial model will be productive. Indeed, there is a definable science to the success of the enterprise strategy within the IHS.

Part 5: Due Diligence and Integration: Physician leaders must take measured steps as their organizations proceed with mergers, acquisitions and other transactions amid a consolidating health care marketplace.

Part 6: Brand Campaigns, Brand Promises, and Enterprise Risk, and Enterprise Risk: Physician leaders are in a unique position to observe, assess and manage enterprise risk and the points where strategy converges with patient care and clinical care models.

Daniel K. Zismer, Ph.D, is a founder and managing director of Castling Partners, an advisory and consultancy focused on strategy performance and integrative risk management for health care organizations. Zismer has a 30-year career in the leadership of health care organizations and executive education. His area of specialization is strategy. He is the Wegmiller Professor Emeritus, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota Programs in Health Care Administration.