Case Scenario:
Administrators of ambulatory care centers sit in a unique position. These administrators are responsible for day-to-day operations of the facility while physicians are responsible for quality medical care. Some ambulatory care centers are owned by the physicians who practice in the center. In these types of organizations, the administrator is actually an employee of the physicians. In other settings, the ambulatory care center is owned by an investor group or corporate owner. In these instances, the physicians may be employees or independent contractors. Physician - administrator relationships are important to operating sound business structures.
Consider the following case:
Dr Case is a busy orthopedic surgeon with surgeries scheduled three mornings each week at an ambulatory care center. In addition, he provides consult visits in the afternoons of these three days. Dr Case is grumbling, he feels that he should be paid more than other partners in the practice as he is bringing in higher paying customers and providing more billable services per hour than most other physicians. Further, he feels it is unfair to have pay overhead expenses for the two days he is not in the clinic. He feels the overhead expenses should be based on the days that a physician is in the center and not based on the number of current partners.
1. Assuming the role of the administrator, how would you approach the problems in this case study.
2. What would you do for resolution.