In a 2012 interview I asked Bruce Lawrence, president and CEO of Oklahoma’s INTEGRIS Health system, to share about some of his organization’s current and future strategies.
Lawrence responded, “What comes to mind is the work we’ve been doing to develop a clinical integration network. Basically it’s a way to bring individual physicians to the table around a common goal in improving the quality of a population and decreasing the cost at the same time.” Lawrence explained that if they successfully reach their goal of increasing quality while reducing cost, the providers will benefit as the cost savings are shared among the physician providers, hospital providers, and insurance companies.
INTEGRIS Health has seen a tremendous response from this market, Lawrence said. “No one else in Oklahoma is doing this right now [as of 2012]. Some of our competitors are going with a strict employment model—actually moving towards what looks like a closed medical staff.” He explained that INTEGRIS Health’s strategy has been different:
“We have a large number of employed physicians, and that number will continue to grow, but there is still a large number of doctors who want to remain independent and private but want and need to affiliate clinically—so that’s what we’re doing. We’ve got nearly six-hundred physicians signed up already.”
Lawrence acknowledged that the process is a lot of work, and INTEGRIS’s physician network is still relatively new; however, he explains, this is an organizational entity that’s physician led. “There is a physician governance board. The physicians are chairing all the committees. The physicians are deciding which doctors are in and which doctors are out.”
Lawrence was happy to say that the physicians are rising to the occasion, and that he has seen some real decision leaders step up.
“That’s one of the things I’m really excited about; as we move as an industry into a more integrated and less fragmented delivery process, and we have more physicians that are either employed or clinically integrated, we say to them ‘now you are a part of the decision making process, you are a part of the solution.’ I’m really seeing some of the physicians starting to step up and say ‘well, we’ve got some really strong ideas about this, and we want to work together with you to try to come up with those new solutions.’”
Lawrence explained that it is this type of engagement and involvement that is going to help the provision of healthcare become more precise with less chance for error, and provide a greater opportunity to improve the health status of the people they serve.
What great perspectives from a highly successful healthcare leader! I’m certainly interested in seeing the results of INTEGRIS Health’s clinical integration network and seeing what other organizations will follow their example in the future.