For physician practice management (PPM) organizations going through an acquisition processes – whether by a physician group or a private equity firm – one idea should remain top-of-mind: integration must start before the closing.

The Harvard Business Review states that 70 to 90 percent of acquisitions fail because of integration issues, noting that “companies that focus on what they are going to get from an acquisition are less likely to succeed than those that focus on what they have to give it.”

Working toward a smooth transition for employees from day one will not only help boost morale, but also contribute to the value-add of your PPM. With that in mind, below are four key considerations to help implement an efficient and effective integration strategy, ensuring a seamless transition before, during and after the deal is done:

1. Put Your People First – As we explored during our annual PPM/ASC Symposium back in March, the first step and greatest challenge in practice integration is ensuring cultural compatibility. For practices with workers that have different working styles and expectations, merging could cause friction points and potential turnover for those dissatisfied with the new conditions. Ensuring systems are in place for immediate employee inclusion is critical. This can begin with something as simple as including them in all-staff communications and keeping them up to date of what’s happening at the company. Feedback systems where merging workforces can share their insights and recommendations can also [...]
   
   Continue Reading

In partnerships, the key to success lies in communication, understanding, and involvement. This certainly applies to PPMs, which learned in the 1990s that an “us versus them” mentality between physicians and the management companies can lead to economic turmoil.

To avoid a similar fate, those in charge of managing a PPM must understand the needs and desires of those leading the boots-on-the-ground patient operations. Working closely with physicians and establishing what they need is crucial to aligning incentives, which leads to happier employees and a better return on investment. It is incumbent upon the PPMs of today to learn from the mistakes of 20 years ago and foster healthy, receptive relationships with physicians. It is also important to truly integrate acquired practices, so that the physicians really feel part of a single integrated system and not part of an independent affiliate of the PPM.

All of this can be done using the following five strategies:

Ensure Integration: Immediately, post-closing, ensure that the PPM’s integration team takes real steps to integrate the acquired practice’s business into the PPM. Consolidate systems and processes, so that the practices and PPM are deeply intertwined and not loosely affiliated. Proper integration up front is key to ultimate success.

Enlist Input: As PPM owners understand, physician input is traditionally tied to physician ownership. However, this type of ownership is becoming rarer. In 2017, the proportion of patient care physicians with an ownership stake in their medical practice dropped [...]

Continue Reading