The Top 5 Blog Posts of 2016
Oh, 2016. What a year it was! Whatever words or sentiments you choose to ascribe to The Year 2016, it was nothing if not consequential. What is true for the world and for the country in 2016 was also true for US Acute Care Solutions. In the past 18 months, USACS has roughly doubled in size. We closed out this year with another huge announcement, the addition of Texas-based ESP as a founding partner. It has been a year of enormous consequence for USACS – perhaps its most consequential ever.
In that context, looking over at our top 5 blog posts from this year is instructive primarily in that the list reminds us to perhaps take a step back and appreciate that there are issues and topics which can outlive one single consequential year. The list of most-read posts this year is notable for what it doesn’t contain: a bunch of posts from 2016. In fact, only one of the five most-read posts this year was actually published in 2016. The rest come from past years, as far back as 2013.
Modern day culture often seems to favor the immediate, the recent, the now. In the never-ending deluge of news and information it is easy to forget the relevancy of past wisdom. Thankfully, there is Google. While recency is still important, the search giant in recent years has increasingly attached importance to “evergreen” content – stories which remain relevant not just for a few days, but for a few years. Our top 5 list this year reflects that. And it also reminds us to think long-term, to consider what topics will still be relevant not just today or next week, but next year, or even the next five years.
#5: Clinician Groups: Amid Widespread Consolidation, What Are Your Choices? by Angelo Falcone
This piece from USACS East President, Dr. Angelo Falcone (and former CEO of USACS founding partner MEP Health), is the only 2016 story on this list. Published in January, Dr. Falcone’s story is a useful read for any physician leader considering their options amid rapid change in the health care industry.
#4: High Pay, Job Security, Societal Prestige, & Stimulating Work – So Why is Practicing Medicine the Miserable Profession? by Jesse Irwin
The enduring popularity of this story proves that what was true in 2014 is still true today: the profession of practicing medicine is still in crisis. Dr. Irwin writes about autonomy, mastery and purpose: three things necessary for job satisfaction, but increasingly under threat as health care continues to change.
#3: One Hospital Metric to Rule Them All by Michael Cetta
This piece by USACS East Chief Strategy Officer, Dr. Michael Cetta, continues to grow in popularity over time, proving he was perhaps prescient by singling out Length of Stay for admitted patients as the single most important metric for hospital leaders. Dr. Cetta argues this metric is the best single indicator for assessing overall hospital efficiency.
#2: Recruiting Emergency Physicians in a Buyer’s Market: Shortage Creates New Challenges for EM Groups by Russell Max Simon
In another 2014 piece, USACS Director of Content Marketing, Russell Max Simon, lays out the challenging reality of recruitment in an environment in which the number of published job openings is two or three times the number of available emergency physicians. It’s a challenge that clearly hasn’t gone away.
#1. Hospital Capacity Management II: The Surge by Robbin Dick
Our most-read post this year is from 2013, and therefore qualifies itself as a classic. USACS Director of Observation Services, Dr. Robbin Dick, is a recognized national expert on hospital capacity management, and his writings on the subject certainly reflect that. Look for him as a speaker at the upcoming Observation Medicine ’17: Observation & Integrated Acute Care Conference.