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BUSINESS ADVISOR
leaders from both centers who are collaborating to determine how to
address various operational and logistical matters, such as block
times and ownership shares. This way, it's not just the suits coming
in, writing all the policies and planning things out. Instead, we provide the support and give them a voice. Maintaining a clinical environment — that all the physicians are accustomed to and have
worked very hard to develop —after the merger will be the cornerstone of our success. And, quite frankly, that can't be achieved without a highly engaged physician leadership.
• Staff confidence. Based on our analysis, we don't anticipate reducing any clinical staff. We'll move forward with a single administrator.
Clinical staff can be a tricky area, and change inevitably will create
some degree of anxiety. But because everyone did their due diligence to determine expected procedure volumes and savings, we
found we'll need everyone. This has been a big assurance on both
sides and has helped smooth the transition. We've also orchestrated
a social event for the teams to meet and get to know each other
before the merger to help in this transition.
Important: If you look into a merger and determine that some staff
will have to be let go, be honest and up front. Failure to do so creates
unnecessary anxieties, rumors and discord, which pose risks for the
entire project.
• Operational logistics. To start, we've committed to maintain staff
alignment with the physicians they're accustomed to and vice versa.
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O U T PAT I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E O N L I N E | N O V E M B E R 2012
