Gastroenterology practices are faced with a spate of exciting innovations and consistent challenges.
While technological developments have continued to open up possibilities in the specialty, rates of GI-related cancers continue to rise among young Americans, further exacerbating the pressures put on practices to perform under declining reimbursement rates, staffing shortages and rising inflation.
GI organizations have also released new quality indicators for colonoscopies in an effort to catch cancers earlier and more accurately, adding another item to the juggling act that GI practices face daily.
But for Shabail Mazumdar, MD, a gastroenterologist at Aurora Health Care in Menomonee Falls, Wis., the juggling act of economic and regulatory pressure can turn into a "symphony" of smooth practice operations — with the right team.
"If you have a good culture where you recruit and retain good people, then you know, work becomes a walk in the park," Dr. Mazumdar told Becker's. "It's very important to have a very good culture of safety. All safety comes from good resources, good nurses, [technicians] and processes, and that equals good outcomes."
"You have to demonstrate value," he added.
He said that his current practice is a product of transitions into a larger system, and through those transitions, he has come away with a belief in the strength of solid leadership, open communication and a foundation in teamwork.
"We have very high patient satisfaction rates, and I give the entire credit to our surgery center leadership," he said. "I strongly believe that if you have a very good cultural milieu, you have good supervisors, good leadership, good management in the surgery centers, then you recruit and retain people.... It's teamwork. What we do in GI is teamwork."
Another aspect of this foundation in teamwork is creating a culture of "psychological safety" on staff, Dr. Mazumdar said, in which team members feel comfortable to bring issues and inefficiencies to leadership's attention and address them head-on.
"We have that leadership and that culture that we call fast, focused, friendly and flexible. We have to communicate with each other with effortless ease," he said.
By building a basis of operations steeped in teamwork and support, physicians can more effectively focus on achieving an outcome of "zero defects."
"There has to be a personal commitment to good patient outcomes and good patient safety," he said.