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Resources such as the American Medical Association's "Principles for Physician Employment" offer guidance on creating mutually beneficial agreements between physicians and employers. That is a topic of ceaseless conversation on the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons' Practice Management Committee, says Charles Goldfarb, MD, Vice Chair of Orthopedic Surgery at St. Louis Children's Hospital and a member of the committee. While Dr. Goldfarb says employment has not lessened the demands his own career makes on his time, he believes it can create a path to greater work-life balance and allow physicians to leverage the financial and technological expertise of larger organizations. That includes issues such as better controlling work hours and relying on hospitals' IT infrastructure to collect essential data on patient outcomes. What the Future Holds While the number of employed physicians remains high, those numbers are no longer growing at the rapid rates of previous years, according to Mosley. "In our 2013–2014 survey, 64 percent of the physicians [chose] hospital employment, and that was the same as the year before," he explains. "I don't think it will ever become 100 percent employed. It's a trend, and trends go up and down. You'll still have some entrepreneurs. Maybe [under] a new delivery model that comes along … [it] will be more cost-efficient to be independent." In short, employment offers benefits to physicians, but the quest continues for a practice model that maintains physi- cian autonomy while boosting quality of life and reining in the bureaucracy with which physicians must contend. Alternatives — including hybrids of existing models — have appeared in recent years and continue to gel. They include medical partnerships among several independent practitioners, concierge practices with less complex business models, and physician enterprise leases that allow physicians to remain independent but lean on the technological and business acumen of larger healthcare organizations. The employed-physician model may even be reaching a saturation point, as physicians think through its implications and test other, potentially better options, Mosley says. Their penchant for independent thinking, applied to a challenging healthcare environment, makes this moment in medicine anything but dull. "The good news about medicine is it changes daily," Mosley says. "It's interesting to be in this field." ■ S T R ES S R ELI EF Fifty-eight percent of employed physicians cited not having to deal with running a practice as the top perk of their position, according to a 2014 Medscape survey. Innovative Solutions for Your Health Care Business Akron n Cleveland n Lorain County n www.brouse.com Collective Experience. Collaborative Culture. Creative Solutions. With a keen understanding of the operations, market trends and economics of the health care industry, Brouse is poised to proactively counsel and advise a wide array of health care clients, including: n Multi - & Single - Physician Groups n Hospitals & Health Systems n Ancillary Service Providers n Long Term Care Facilities n Home Health Care Providers n Medical Device Companies n Durable Medical Equipment & Supply Companies For more information, please contact: Daniel Glessner, Esq., Practice Chair 330.535.5711 x316 dglessner@brouse.com Christopher Huryn, Esq., Partner 330.535.5711 x389 churyn@brouse.com David Schweighoefer, Esq., Partner 216.830.6830 x277 dschweighoefer@brouse.com J. Ryan Williams, Esq., Partner 216.830.6830 x592 rwilliams@brouse.com 2 0 1 5 S E P T E M B E R /O C T O B E R ■ M D N E W S . CO M ■ MD NEWS Cleveland/Akron/Canton | 2 7