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- Say No to Professional Silos!
Today I wanted share some thoughts from a few recent conversations about “professional silos” and one suggestion for a first step outside your particular silo(s).
I thought about healthcare professionals’ tendency to be so head down in their own professional specialty (primary care physician, dietician, physical therapist, surgeon) or site of care (hospital, home health, private practice), that they seem to have blinders on about what’s happening with other professionals in the space, the direction policy is going and why, and how it might surface career risks and opportunities.
Healthcare is one interconnected continuum, with all professionals having an impact on patients and the health of the population overall.
So why do we do this?
Partly it’s because of how we are paid.
When volume of care/services/productivity leads to higher revenue for you or your employer, the incentive is to do what you can to optimize your direct output: billing units, RVUs, patients treated per day, etc.
I suspect most of us don’t think about why it’s valuable to stay current with healthcare and health policy as a whole, and what OTHER professionals and sites of care are focused on for their own advancement.
We read our own professional journals, go to our own conference, and consider progress through the lens of our own present day pain points.
But there’s so much to gain by panning out! Healthcare professionals can accomplish more by employing a more comprehensive care delivery philosophy, where the right patient is seen by the right provider type(s) at the right time for the right reasons.
And they should understand the drivers preventing to and facilitating improved healthcare delivery and outcomes.
See the big picture and solve the big problems!
Here’s my recommendation, and one of the easiest (and fun 😀 ) ways to start:
Add a health policy publication/resource 📰 or two and a podcast 🎙️ or two to your professional content consumption.
If you do, I’d love to hear what resonates!
The gold standard is Health Affairs. There is a good amount of free content and their Forefront articles great place to start. You might enjoy this one and this “Health Podyssey” podcast.
Here’s a link to subscribe to one or more of their free newsletters, like this one:
Here are a few other excellent content sources:
They did a great job adding this recent health policy resource:
Here’s an overview:
Here’s a short white paper they did last year on the future of Value Based Payment through the Medicare Access and Chip Reauthorization Act: