7y
Thank you for sharing your experience. I would love to talk with you personally as your response has me concerned as well.
At Vituity, we are first and foremost advocates for our patients, but as owners we are advocates for ourselves as well. We have that ability as we are not a public company, we have no outside funding, and we are not governed by an external board. As an organization by and for physicians we are in a unique position where we do not need to kowtow to others and this does make us different from other healthcare organizations.
Since we (mostly) work inside hospital walls we DO need to partner with hospital administration which means we need to align the hospitals goals with our own. We work together with the hospital to get the best contracts we can for all providers at the site. With that being said, healthcare is changing and the environment is more competitive than ever. There is an intense focus on financials, driving down unit costs, and improving quality. One of the reasons there is such intense pressure is because total admissions in hospitals has flattened out, but the costs continue to rise. Even though hospitals are demanding to bend that curve, their unit cost is going up, but that's not sustainable and why they need to do things differently. Hence, why we need to do things differently. At Vituity, we’ve always focused on improving quality, but we are looking for ways to diversify our revenue to stay competitive.
How do we do that? By diversifying our clinical services within the hospital, but also by diversifying services outside of the hospital walls. We've been able to achieve this in the last several years by adding resources and expertise to understand these new services. We've had to build the infrastructure to support this. These things cost money upfront, but this much needed investment in ourselves keep us competitive in the marketplace and allows us to not work with, but partner with our hospitals. We are currently absorbing a financial burden that is necessary, but new.
Vituity is rapidly changing to keep up with the current dynamic healthcare environment which means that we are experiencing growing pains. Your frustrations are valid and while I may not be able to change your opinion or assuage your fears, I'd welcome the opportunity to share why decisions are being made and how ultimately these changes are for the betterment of our partners and our patients.
– David Birdsall, COO
