Healthcare Practice Management Case Study: Phycor

PhyCor, one of the heavy hitters in the physician practice management sector experienced highs and lows of its business. PhyCor provided physicians with an alternative to private practice rather than practicing at large, corporate firms. As physicians became more focused on patient care, firm such as PhyCor gave them the opportunity to entrust their finances and “paper work” to management practices.
PhyCor reigned the industry. The firm successfully established many startups and acquired other management practices that were competitors. As the firm grew, it also accumulated debt. One critical issue noted in the case involved PhyCor’s eagerness to expand smaller healthcare organizations into large ones. This caused financial strain and also …show more content…
At first, acquiring large partners and establishing clinics were not issues for the firm, but this soon resulted in the decrease of the firm’s valuation on the commercial market. With this challenge costing the firm, the news of this to public competitors and shareholders caused more pain. PhyCor’s over eagerness to soar became a problem as it moved very rapidly sweeping through the nation to acquire organizations and establish as many facilities as possible. The firm’s failure to analyze its strategic direction with the SWOT analysis led it to the wrong turn. By performing a SWOT analysis will determine the firm’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to set limits and prove the competitive advantage (Burns, Bradley, & Weiner, …show more content…
First, I would roll out a timeline that is realistic to the data for acquiring healthcare clinics and establishing new ones. I believe this was the first problem in the firm’s original model. Next, I would implement an approach to quality improvement (QI). My approach would be business process reengineering which would provide creative, critical thinking to sustain the firm’s competitive advantage while also restructuring newly acquired and established organizations (Burns, Bradley, & Weiner, 2011). To keep the PhyCor from financially hemorrhaging, I would ensure that each healthcare organization secure its equipment and facilities. Also, employing support staff would fall on the individual organization. Generic strategies or standards would be designed so that all organizations would be the same, but each would be responsible for its own. Keeping PhyCor focused on financial enhancement and cost reductions for the organizations would be my priority, not investing time in hiring and firing front office and medical