Under managed care, health care has become a sometimes uneasy partnership between consumers, health care providers, and the communities they serve. Empowered by a broadly held understanding of medicine and an ability to collect and use performance information to improve health services, this alliance is reshaping our local health systems. In this constantly changing environment, competitive advantage will go to those physicians who are fast-and focused-in their ability to transform their practice into accountable, cooperative business units-reshaping society's expectations of medicine and ultimately improving the delivery of health care.

In The New Health Partners, physician Stephen Prather reveals how doctors can regain stewardship of their medical practices and strengthen their crucial role in the health care of their local communities. Prather?a nationally known physician consultant, educator, practitioner, and speaker--gives physicians effective techniques and practical advice needed to deliver bottom-line results.
Prather shows physicians, medical directors, and administrators how they can acquire the essential skills of leadership and team development for use in both office and community health settings. Step-by-step, Prather explains how to apply the transformative power of the "Six Dimensions of Health Systems" to integrate delivery of care, align economic and non-economic incentives, manage chronic illness, empower clinical groups, work with patients and their families, and redesign care for community benefit.

This groundbreaking book explores how to
A- Put in place successful methods for creating economic incentives to motivate physician change
A- Map outproven approaches for achieving clinical quality improvement and efficient office practices
A- Gain insight into a proven strategy for engaging the community in a rewarding partnership
A- Combine effective management principles, time-honored values, and useful guidelines for the most skillful use of performance data

The New Health Partners is based on the information gathered from in-depth organizational and marketplace assessments and surveys of physician-leaders from across the country. This vital resource also includes numerous examples of best practices that have proven to be easily reproducible, cost-effective, and beneficial to patients. This hands-on volume will prove to be an invaluable aid for any physician-leader who wants to work smarter and direct a health care organization to be ethically, clinically, and fiscally sound.

Discover t-he Six Dimensions of Health Systems That Can Transform Your Medical Practice

The New Health Partners is an essential handbook for physicians who want to reshape their practices to prosper within the managed care environment. This key resource offers a blueprint for helping physicians, medical directors, and administrators create the needed partnerships and cooperative business alliances, put in place the best practices that will maximize accountability, and, ultimately, achieve success in disease management.

"Steve Prather's book encapsulates the key forces in health care today. If followed, his practical solutions will dramatically change the way we organize and deliver care."--Henry G. Walker, president and CEO, Providence/Health System

"Prather has written a book full of helpful insights, tips, and examples for thosetrying to make sense of the leadership opportunity facing doctors today and tomorrow. His strategies and stories can help those who lead physician practice today and guide those who teach tomorrow's doctors."-Paul Batalden, professor and director, Health Care Improvement Leadership Development Center for the Evaluative Clinical Sciences, Dartmouth Medical School

"Using his vast experience and keen insight, Steve Prather presents exciting concepts and practices that will contribute greatly to the improvement of the delivery and quality of clinical care into the next millennium-a major concern for all health care leaders."-Dan S. Wilford, president, Memorial Hermann Healthcare System

"I urge the leaders of health care systems to read and study this enlightening book together. And, since integration, alignment, improvement, teamwork, and partnering are relevant activities at all levels of an organization, it would be wise for leaders to encourage and enable the many natural work groups in their organization to similarly study, digest, and adapt the rich knowledge available in [this book]. Doing so will produce a much more effective and competitive health care system."-From the foreword by James S. Roberts, senior vice president, physician leadership, VHA, Inc.