New relationships with physicians: an overview for trustees.

As resources become increasingly scarce and tightly controlled, health care organizations must integrate their services with those of other providers in order to use those resources more efficiently and to reduce costs relentlessly. One of the most critical and difficult aspects of this integration is with physicians. To effect the level of integration that is needed, new relationships and partnerships between providers and physicians must be created--even as the old models are destroyed. Why is integration with doctors so critical to the success of the health care organization as well as the physicians? The answer comes from a core principle of business economics that states that the fundamental means of production must be controlled by the business. This is absolutely essential if the business has any chance of controlling costs and thriving in a more efficient market.