Vituity: A Physician-Led Partnership for Improving Patient Care - Paper Example

Introduction

Vituity is a physician-owned and led partnership that combines business acumen with clinical excellence to aid healthcare organizations to improve patient care standards and increase performance metrics (About us, 2020). The organization is comprised of advanced providers, top physicians, and other healthcare professionals spread across 14 states. Vituity’s mission is to be at the center of better care provision across the country (About us, 2020). One of its mission-critical goals is to work closely with hospital leadership to initiate strategies that influence operations efficiency and patient satisfaction (About us, 2020). Additionally, its physicians believe in utilizing flexible approaches to specific client sites and using best practices to handle situations at hand.

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Pay for Performance

According to Gillam et al. (2012), there are two major categories of pay-for-performance that include variable pay programs and merit pay increases. An organization uses its operations model to determine the type of compensation program that best suits its design. Noticeably, a merit pay increase is comprised of increasing employees’ salaries due to high performance (Gillam et al., 2012). The annual increases are part of annual salary increase budgeting processes and are issued at the end of the year, preferably after a performance review.

On the other hand, variable pay programs comprise of non-discretionary and discretionary bonuses that vary in terms of eligible employees, measurement metrics, and payout periods. Discretionary bonuses are offered to individuals who portray exceptional performance without any predefined objectives or goals (Gillam et al., 2012). They include spot, retention, and project bonuses. Additionally, nondiscretionary bonuses are offered when workers meet pre-defined goals and objectives. They include company-wide bonuses, and team or individual incentive bonuses.

Advantages of Pay-for-Performance

Pay Performance Compensation enhances employees’ motivation since they feel they are being valued by their organizations. As a result, productivity is enhanced because motivated employees are willing to put up extra effort while conducting their activities (Cadsby et al., 2007). Additionally, merit pay increases create constructive competition as poor performers strive to improve their efforts to receive the incentives (Feng et al., 2019). Notably, since merit pay compensates employees for what they are worth, it enhances job retention since most workers can visualize their progress in a firm. Moreover, an effective PFP lowers production unit costs. In this case, an employee’s productivity increases, the production level is increased making the process self-funded (Feng et al., 2019). For example, for every one dollar paid in bonuses, a company may be gaining two dollars in increased production.

Disadvantages of Pay-for-Performance

On the downside, today, pay for performance alone is not enough to retain top performance in a company since the external market is developing towards pay faster as opposed to merit pay. In this case, top performers in a firm can quit accepting offers in other companies that are offering competitive salaries (Feng et al., 2019). Additionally, merit pay may create problems among employees through frustrations, jealousy, negative competition, favoritism, and lack of clear and objective performance measurables (Feng et al., 2019). Noticeably, frustrations may occur if the performance review process is subjective, leading to most top performers not being compensated (Cadsby et al., 2007). Frustration and dissatisfaction may lead to high turnovers for those who feel neglected or left out. For a good pay-performance program to be effective, managers must remain objective throughout the process.

Vituity Pay-for-Performance Compensation Model

Notably, all employees join Vituity as partners who share common goals and missions without any influence from external investors. The situation allows its employees, who also serve as co-founders to enjoy transparency and equity not present in other organizations (Careers 2020). The company compensates its employees with competitive salaries and annual profit-sharing bonuses. The bonuses are distributed to all its workers at the end of each financial year. Moreover, the company offers signing bonuses for its new physicians who accept a full-time commitment for two or more years at any of the firm’s priority locations (Careers 2020). Vituity also offers a sabbatical program for partners who have worked with the company for more than 10 years (Careers 2020). The partners are allowed to enjoy time away from their professional work to pursue other interests, rest, or rejuvenate. Notably, the sabbatical is given every five years.

Recommendations

In this case, Vituity utilizes a variable pay program in which it offers company wide-bonuses at the end of every financial year. The firm should increase the use of pay-performance programs to enhance the productivity of its physicians to achieve its healthcare goals and objectives. Currently, the COVID-19 pandemic has created challenges for many healthcare facilities as they strive to control the spread of the virus. The pandemic has overwhelmed the global healthcare system with an urgent need for increased productivity, healthcare providers, and medical supplies. Vituity has joined the fight against COVID-19 by partnering with California and New York healthcare systems (“14 Vituity physicians,” 2020). The firm provides hospitals across the two states with physicians to enforce the use of best practices such as social distancing to curb the pandemic.

The organization should use pay for performance compensation model to motivate its physicians to increase their productivity and use best practices to facilitate better healthcare outcomes. Today, medical practitioners require intrinsic motivation and determination to work in the frontline as the globe fights a deadly disease. Therefore, a mere pat on the shoulder is not enough to show value for the physicians; hence the need for bonuses and compensations. Additionally, the business should not wait for its annual company-wide bonuses but also use non-discretionary bonuses to motivate its employees.

References

14 Vituity physicians travel to support New York City hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic. (2020). Vituity. Retrieved from https://www.vituity.com/news-and-events/14-vituity-physicians-travel-to-support-new-york-city-hospitals-during-covid-19-pandemic/

About us. (2020). Vituity. Retrieved from https://www.vituity.com/about-us/

Cadsby, C. B., Song, F., & Tapon, F. (2007). Sorting and incentive effects of pay for performance: An experimental investigation. Academy of Management Journal, 50(2), 387-405. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2007.24634448

Careers. (2020). Vituity. Retrieved from https://www.vituity.com/careers/physicians/compensation/

Feng, Y., Kristensen, S. R., Lorgelly, P., Meacock, R., Sanchez, M. R., Siciliani, L., & Sutton, M. (2019). Pay for performance for specialized care in England: Strengths and weaknesses. Health Policy, 123(11), 1036-1041. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthpol.2019.07.007

Gillam, S. J., Siriwardena, A. N., & Steel, N. (2012). Pay-for-performance in the United Kingdom: impact of the quality and outcomes framework—a systematic review. The Annals of Family Medicine, 10(5), 461-468. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1370/afm.1377