Productivity
Author and Expert:
Dr. Lee Norman
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From his days on the front lines of care in the military to the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic, Lee Norman, MD, MHS, MBA, senior medical director of Optum Kansas City, has treated patients in just about every care setting imaginable.
With a medical career that spans six decades, including 40 years in civilian settings, he has seen how placing an emphasis on Relative Value Units (RVUs) isn’t sustainable.
“One thing I’m passionate about is the fact that we have to define productivity on the basis of outcomes,” said Dr. Norman. “Our health system has been rooted in defining success by the number of patients seen in a day. If clinicians are attentive and have the right team around them, they can shift to evidence-based care that means fewer patients a day but better care for an entire population.”
By deploying value-based care strategies, Dr. Norman says physicians and patients reap the benefits of a system that measures quality using metrics such as better chronic disease management, patient satisfaction and reduced hospital readmissions.
Dr. Norman was a social worker before he went to medical school. It was this experience that first sparked his love for service. It was also in that role where he first learned how to interview and ask questions to understand outside dynamics that impact a person’s well-being.
When he started practicing medicine, the insights he gained from his social work days proved invaluable as he peeled back the layers to understand all factors that lead to healthy communities.
“What I’ve learned is it’s imperative we treat our patients like a population,” he said. “And unfortunately, a lot of the population does not come into doctors’ offices due to lack of money, no transportation, language barriers and more. The work we’re doing now is creating the opportunity for us to break through these social determinants of health and make a difference with whole communities.”
Dr. Norman and his team are utilizing data and analytics to close quality gaps and ensure preventive care, early diagnostics and screenings for high-risk populations. It’s through this work that they’re also seeing physicians gain a better balance of working at the top of their license, leading to less burnout and stronger patient relationships.
“As a family physician, I worried a lot about the patients I wasn’t seeing. The ones with underlying conditions,” he continued. “For example, there’s a large percentage of the population with diabetes and they’re unaware. With predictive analytics, we can get in front of those issues and treat patients before symptoms worsen. That’s the secret sauce for successful value-based care.”
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After visiting with a colleague who was busy making copies in between patient visits, Dr. Norman was struck at how much strain it put on the whole practice with the physician pulled in multiple directions. While jumping in to support practice operations, this physician was losing steam.
“Everything is about the team when working towards the quadruple aim,” he said. “It takes a strong support system with team members and technology to eliminate the tasks that are weighing physicians down. With a team-based approach to care, we’re seeing this weight being lifted, and not only do patients benefit, but physicians are less burned out.”
After reconnecting with this physician several months later, Dr. Norman saw a very different picture. As he transitioned to a value-based model, he gained the help he needed to focus on quality care and patient satisfaction. Dr. Norman saw him go from being overwhelmed to having the ability to take much-needed time off.
“When I first visited this physician, he was completely overworked,” he continued. “But over time, as he integrated value-based strategies and resources, he was able to lighten his administrative load and for the first time in years, he took time off to go to visit his family overseas. He looked like a whole new person.”
Patient-centeredness starts with data and analytics to identify high-risk patients and extends to everything from prescription refills to referrals and follow-up appointments, according to Dr. Norman. It’s, as he puts it, the connective tissue that enables physicians to do their jobs and leads to happy patients.
Evidence-based studies that demonstrate the impact of value-driven reimbursement and care delivery on patient outcomes will compel more physicians to move to a more sustainable health care delivery model…
Optum Health senior medical director, Dr. Robin Eickhoff, on how value-based care offers a way forward in the clinician burnout crisis
Dr. Meredith Williams, a practicing emergency room physician and president of operations and performance for Optum Health’s Midwest region…
When I started practicing medicine more than 17 years ago, splitting my time as an internist and pediatrician, I quickly became passionate about process improvement.
