[NYAPRS Enews] Crain's: Doctors Council's New Activist Agenda

[Briana Gilmore]

NYAPRS Note: A changing role for leaders at SEIU in how HHC, NYC's largest public hospital system, makes decisions and plans for its future signals potential big changes ahead for the role of the union in hospital management and clinical decisions. However, these changes are not, as the article indicates below, solely predicated on a new understanding of the need for more collaboration. The drivers of these changes are also financial and political, as HHC is being forced to comply with changing sets of business and care standards if it wants to remain a key player in NYC health care delivery. Particularly as DSRIP reinforces the need for quality care outcomes, the city hospital corporation and its union workforce will have to examine the way it delivers care, but just as importantly, the way it relays information about that care to other providers, insurers, and the state.

Doctors Council's New Activist Agenda
Crain's New York Business; 7/11/2014

New leadership at the Doctors Council SEIU is taking a larger role in addressing community health issues and changes at the city's Health and Hospitals Corp. The public health system employs 2,400 of the Doctors Council's 3,000 members in New York state.
President Frank Poscia, who took office with Executive Director Matthews Hurley in January, said that the union is embracing a renewed mission to engage its members with some of the city's pressing health care issues, including reimbursement and measuring patient outcomes.
"Health care is changing right before our eyes," said Dr. Poscia. "We need to evolve as these changes occur so we can take control of them and make sure they actually improve patient care."
Dr. Poscia and Dr. Hurley were elected after Dr. Barry Liebowitz stepped down last year after 33 years as president of the country's largest doctors' union.
The union hopes to capture members' interest with improved communications, including a more active social media presence and a new website<http://doctorscouncil.org/> that went live on July 1. Some of the branding efforts include the tagline "A united voice for doctors, our patients, and the communities we serve."
In May, the Doctors Council presented a white paper to Deputy Mayor Lilliam Barrios-Paoli and HHC, calling for "formal joint decision-making bodies" to ensure that HHC's clinicians and staff have a say in initiatives aimed at improving quality and addressing the system's many challenges. The Doctors Council has been critical of HHC's recent top-down attempts to improve patient outcomes, including a pay-for-performance program that the union said was introduced without input from its members.
"Far too many management decisions have resulted in time and resources wasted due to failure to engage the frontline doctor in decision-making and strategy, goal-setting, measurement and execution," said the report.
Dr. Poscia wants doctors and the patients themselves, not just administrators, engaged in decision-making. The mayor's office has indicated that it is open to a collaborative approach, he said. The union plans to weigh in on discussions on such topics as hospital closings, paid sick time, and prekindergarten.
"Gone are the days that doctors can just treat their patients," said Dr. Poscia. "Now we need to be an advocate for patients in all things health care."
http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20140711/PULSE/140719981/doctors-councils-new-activist-agenda
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