A. Jay Evans, Executive Director-South Texas Region, IPC — The Hospitalist Company
Monday, January 23, 2012
In the realm of modern health, sound thought and anticipation ultimately lead to success as the market continues to ebb and flow. Over the course of these continual shifts, several individuals in our local market are at the forefront of the health care industry. A. Jay Evans, Executive Director-South Texas Region, IPC — The Hospitalist Company, is one of those people.
Photo: A. Jay Evans, Executive Director-South Texas Region, IPC — The Hospitalist Company
Q: What is the most significant change you have seen in health care in the last decade?
A: By far, the most significant change I’ve observed in the health care industry has been the increasing relevancy of hospitalists for inpatient medicine. The specialty didn’t even exist until roughly a decade or so ago, but it is the fastest-growing medical specialty in the country. To illustrate, IPC has been in San Antonio for eight years, and we’ve grown from six hospitalists to more than 80. We’re now in practically every hospital in the city. Plus, we have a growing presence in both Corpus Christi and Austin.
As experts in the field of inpatient care delivery, hospitalists have a core expertise managing the cinical problems of acutely ill hospitalized patients. They improve the quality of care for patients and improve patient safety.
Q: What do you think is going to be the most surprising health care development on the horizon?
A: I believe that the trend toward alignment will accelerate. Alignment with hospitals is reflected by those hospitalist groups that view themselves as integral to the hospital’s success. They have a responsibility and opportunity to help ensure the facility’s success clinically, operationally and financially. Not only that, but hospitalists that are vested in the success of the hospital enhance the hospital’s reputation for excellence and quality.
IPC, for example, works with each hospital to determine our annual goals. We then monitor our progress with monthly meetings between our hospitalists and hospital representatives. IPC blends the specific requirements of each hospitalist practice with our extensive national resources to deliver the right solutions to fit local needs. Our providers are given extensive training and are backed by the management support systems and information technology necessary to improve the quality and reduce the cost of patient care in the facilities they serve. IPC provides physician-driven, facility-specific strategies geared to improving the quality and efficiency of inpatient care. Plus, IPC practice groups provide high quality hospitalist services with little or no financial support from their hospitals.
Q: What do you wish someone had told you about being involved in health care?
A: I’m constantly impressed and intrigued by how much variety there is in health care — even in an era when the only constant is change, this business is never the same any day. This is especially true in hospital medicine. Hospital medicine now includes specialties such as neurology, psychiatry, rehabilitation and others. It is constantly evolving. Being in the health care industry keeps you from getting bored. If you like challenges and variety, this is the field for you.
Q: What new development in medicine excites you the most for its potential effect on patient care, and why?
A: Extending the continuum of care from hospitals into other service lines, such as long-term care, skilled nursing and assisted-living facilities. Many patients discharged from the hospital need continuing care from skilled providers. IPC, for example, is not only caring for patients in the hospital setting, but has extended into the post-acute-care setting and is now in a position to care for patients through that entire spectrum of care. In the San Antonio region, IPC is in every long-term acute care and rehabilitation facility, and more than two dozen skilled nursing facilities, and expanding monthly. Additionally, our presence in all of these post-acute-care facilities is growing in Austin and Corpus Christi.
Q: What do you think will be the biggest change in health care in the next 10 years?
A: I think we’ll see a growth in the use of physician assistants (PAs) and nurse practitioners (NPs) to help alleviate the physician shortage. According to a white paper put out in 2008 by The Phoenix Group, an action-oriented think tank, there is a talent pool of 65,000 physician assistants and 120,000 nurse practitioners in the U.S. today waiting to be tapped to play a meaningful role in hospital medicine. For this system to work, physicians need to understand the general skills of midlevel providers and what working together will mean.
Q: Why are you passionate about health care?
A: Health care is a field that can have a positive impact on all of us. It offers me the opportunity to make a contribution and, in a small way, help improve the lives of many people.
Q: How does IPC utilize technology to help hospitalists be more productive?
A: IPC-Link is among the most widely adopted, comprehensive and sophisticated hospitalist management software tools in use today. By utilizing IPC-Link, our hospitalists are able to devote more time to the care of their patients. Plus, because it’s hospitalist-specific software, it results in improved productivity in areas such as charge capture and accuracy, as well as quality and performance metrics.
Hospitalists access IPC-Link through our Web-based “virtual office” portal on a daily basis to support their clinical, administrative and communications needs. IPC-Link helps hospitalists track important patient-management data, communicate with referring physicians, track key statistics important to the practice and bill for their services. IPC-Link also serves as their one-stop resource for online CME, email, company news, reference materials, benefits administration and more … all of it “paperless.”
MD News Future of Health Care 2011, San Antonio