Outsourcing vs. Insourcing
Should your hospital outsource its OB hospitalist program?
Many hospital leaders are looking for ways to improve the quality of care in labor and delivery, with the intention of increasing patient satisfaction, reducing risk, driving growth, and supporting nurses and physicians.
A 24/7 OB hospitalist program accomplishes these goals while providing an extra layer of safety and support for in-house staff and community physicians.
As the standard of care has become 24/7 in-house coverage for labor and delivery, the hard decision comes down to whether to develop your own hospitalist program or outsource to a dedicated OB/GYN hospitalist provider.
Making the best decision for your hospital
Whether your goal is to improve performance across a network of hospital programs or you’re focused on rural hospital challenges, any hospital leader considering an OB hospitalist program should compare the pros and cons of outsourcing versus developing your own in-house laborist or OB hospitalist program.
There are many important aspects to consider when making this critical decision. OB hospitalist programs increase hospital labor & delivery performance in many areas:
- Enhance patient safety
- Support community clinicians
- Ensure consistent coverage
- Increase delivery volume
- Prevent physician and nurse burnout
Download our free guide to learn questions to ask and steps to take as you go through the process.
Developing an OB hospitalist program yourself
Time and responsibilities are important considerations if you insource your own OB hospitalist program.
When considering whether to develop and self-manage your OB hospitalist program you should account for:
- Recruiting physicians
- Purchasing malpractice insurance
- Assuming all malpractice liability risk
- Accounting for premium labor costs
- Assuming financial risk
- Managing physician burnout
- Overseeing physician management and training
- Managing professional fee billing, coding, and compliance
- Undertaking the administrative burden of filling shifts
Additionally, you should consider the importance of growth, quality assurance, and reporting.
You’ll be responsible for driving strategic clinical, operational, or financial objectives and the additional complexity of incorporating:
- Strong clinical program leadership
- Data reporting, benchmarking, and analysis
- Clinical management and process standardization
- Development and implementation of best practices and protocols
- Volume and throughput optimization
- Financial analysis and benchmarking
- Private practice engagement
- Ensuring patient satisfaction and quality assurance
Advantages of building an OB hospitalist program with OBHG
When you invest in a comprehensive OB hospitalist program from OBHG, OB clinicians and support staff are at the forefront. We work with you to create programs to improve maternal health, improve patient safety, mitigate the challenging workforce issues facing OB/GYNs today, improve hospital labor productivity, reduce maternal mortality, and create better outcomes.
Active on-site coverage
- Physician-led triage for every patient coming to labor and delivery
- Non-competitive support for local OB/GYN providers
- Backup support for medical staff
- Training expertise
- OB clinicians skilled in emergent care
- Clinicians who embrace hospital initiatives and goals
- Participation in department leadership, committees, and medical staff meetings
- A partner for MFMs for transports and patient care management
- Residency program support, training, and coverage
- Increased obstetrics support 24/7
- Standard clinical care from the entire clinician team
Clinical leadership
- Dedicated clinical site director with additional oversight and support provided by regional and national leadership
- Clinical protocol implementation and management
- Physician training, simulation drills, and continuing medical education
- Backed by a robust network of physicians to leverage national and regional best practices
- Data reporting and benchmarking
- Support for hospital growth initiatives
- Managing physician burnout
- Hospital operations improvement
Labor and Delivery/OB hospitalist management
- OB emergency room implementation and management
- Candidate identification and recruitment, supported by OBHG’s large national recruiting team
- Physician schedule management
- Billing and coding
- Community provider outreach
- Premium labor costs
Quality management
- Risk data reporting
- Internal processes and compliance reviews
- Quality data and outcomes metrics tracking and analysis
- Medical malpractice coverage
- Improving patient satisfaction
Ongoing program customization
- Customized solutions to fit the size and needs of each hospital
- Ability to scale with hospitals
- Clinical, operational and compliance expertise
- Operational and financial benchmarking to optimize program performance
Although initial costs of an outsourced program may be higher, revenue-generating opportunities continue to increase throughout the program and hidden costs of running your own program can further impact the comparative analysis.
The realities of managing on-site Labor & Delivery coverage
Many hospital leaders aren’t aware of the daily challenges and demands of developing and managing their own OB hospitalist program. Listen in as Dr. Mark Olszyk, Chief Medical Officer and Vice President at Carroll Hospital in Maryland talks about the downfalls of trying to manage your own in-house OB coverage program with community and employed OB/GYNs on OBHG’s The Obstetrics Podcast:
Listen now:
Improve obstetric operations with Ob Hospitalist Group
Is it time to outsource and leave it to the experts? As the largest and only dedicated OB hospitalist provider in the U.S., OBHG becomes a part of your team to build a strong, successful OB hospitalist program. We have a proven ability to drive better outcomes for our hospital partners while supporting and accomplishing their strategic goals on labor and delivery.
After the implementation of an OBHG program, our hospital partners see an increase in core quality metrics (including C-section, VBAC rates and NQF scores) which improve patient outcomes and drive patient experience.
Need guidance creating an OB hospitalist program RFP? See our example RFP and ensure you ask all of the right questions. Need more details? Contact us to learn more.
