The influence of a changing health care environment on the role of faculty in practice at a rural academic health center

Date

2001-08

Journal Title

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Volume Title

Publisher

Texas Tech University

Abstract

This qualitative case study describes the influence of managed care on the role of faculty in practice at a rural academic health center. The informants were three school of medicine faculty and three school of nursing faculty with active, revenue-generating faculty practices. Two of the three school of medicine faculty were medical doctors with the third having a terminal degree in a health related discipline. All school of nursing faculty were nurse practitioners. All informants participated in tape-recorded interviews that addressed (a) what incident in the health care environment influenced faculty practice, (b) who responded to this incident, (c) what issues emerged following this incident, (d) what actions were taken in response to the incident, (e) how the faculty role of practice changed as a result of this incident, (f) what the response of faculty to changes in the faculty role was, (g) if the practice role were more significant as a result of this incident, and (h) if there were a lesser or greater dependency on practice revenues to support the tripartite mission of the academic health center as a result of this incident.

When the acquired data were analyzed, managed care was identified as the incident in the health care environment that had influenced the role of faculty practice. From an administrative viewpoint, changes in the practice role included becoming competitive with health care provider organizations outside of the academic health care system for patients. From a faculty perspective, changes in the practice role included changing the manner in which health care was delivered and developing a business perspective towards dehvery of health care. Cost of health care, access to a specific health care provider or health care system, and quality of health care emerged as major themes during analysis.

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