The Exec: How to Excel in Physician Engagement

December 31, 2024 ‐ HealthLeaders Media

By Christopher Cheney

The new top clinical executive at UMass Memorial Health has been involved in physician engagement at the health system for more than six years.

Andrew Karson, MD, was named as system chief physician officer and CMO in October. Prior to his new role, he was interim president of the UMass Memorial Medical Group, and he had been CMO and senior vice president at UMass Memorial Medical Center from May 2018 to April 2023.

One of the keys to success in physician engagement is to have organizational priorities line up well with physicians’ priorities, according to Karson.

“At UMass Memorial Health, we put patients and their families first,” he says. “Patient-centered care engages physicians—that is why they have typically gone into medicine.”

An organizational commitment to high-quality care is another important element of physician engagement.

“Physicians want to be engaged in a place that values the care that is provided,” he says.

Physicians should have formal pathways to engage with a health system and contribute to decision-making, according to Karson. For example, there are two meetings every week at UMass Memorial Health with the 18 clinical department chairs.

“One meeting is with all of the leaders in the organization, and the second meeting is more intimate, with myself, the interim president of our medical group, and our chief operating officer,” Karson says. “We hear directly from the department chairs about their priorities and concerns.”

Karson also attends individual department meetings.

“Most department chairs have weekly or monthly staff meetings,” he says. “I hear directly from clinicians, which is critically important.”

The health system also has regular electronic town hall meetings.

“Our medical group covers five hospitals and over a dozen campuses as well as more than 80 practice locations,” Karson says. “We share our current plans and strategies. We get input from physicians and other staff during those town halls.”

Finally, the health system publishes a biweekly newsletter, called Group Talk.

“We have articles and information series about new clinical guidelines, changes to the staff benefits, and opportunities for physicians to participate in community service activities,” Karson says. “Every time we publish one of these newsletters, I get about a half dozen questions about the content or ideas from the faculty.”

Physician engagement is essential to the effective functioning of a health system, Karson explains.

“We have 2,000 clinicians spread across central Massachusetts,” he says. “We give them multiple avenues and ways to share their thoughts and get back to us. We want them to know what we think is important and to be able to hear back from them about how they would like us to adjust and alter our thinking.”

Integrating medical services

One of Karson’s top priorities is integrating medical services.

“First, you must set goals for integration and define why the organization is integrating,” he says. “For us, we are integrating medical services to generate better access for patients. If we are not integrating our medical enterprise, we might not have the right resources in the right places.”

One example is in cardiovascular services.

“We don’t need a cardiology catheterization lab at each site,” Karson says. “We have one at the academic medical center, where we need cardiologists and echocardiologists. We are trying to be intentional on where we put the resources to take the best care of patients. We want to give them access to care in the right place at the right time.”

One of the goals of integrating medical services is boosting efficiency, Karson explains.

“We do not want to duplicate services at all sites of care,” he says. “Not having a cath lab at every hospital is an example. By not having redundant services, we can invest in other parts of our mission. For example, we have one campus handling complicated traumas—you don’t need a hospital a mile down the road to also have a trauma center. You are better off consolidating your resources to make sure you can give the best care possible without being redundant.”

Standards of clinical care

A big element of Karson’s job is promoting standards of clinical care.

“You need to share the ‘why’ behind standards of clinical care, and if everyone agrees to the why of a clinical standard, then we can all get behind the work,” he says. “Part of our mission is to improve the care of the people in our diverse communities. We can improve that care by promoting the standard way we do our work.”

One of those standards is ensuring that patients have access to high-quality care.

“We want to make sure that patients can be seen in a timely way by the right provider in the right place at the right time,” he says. “As we design standards of care, we want to craft them in a way that provides better access to patients.”

Standardizing care is based on an intentional process, Karson explains.

“We want to provide the highest quality of care based on published clinical guidelines,” he says. “Medicine should be evidence-based, and where there are clinical guidelines, we want to infuse them into our work. We also want to provide care in the safest way possible.”

To serve diverse communities in central Massachusetts, UMass Memorial Health needs to provide culturally sensitive clinical care, according to Karson.

“This includes medical services, teaching, and research,” he says. “This means providing care that is free of bias. By having clinical standards, we can improve care broadly.”

Christopher Cheney is the CMO editor at HealthLeaders.

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