Robert M Johnson RCPT, MBA
President, PHSC Consulting LLC
(410) 905-7014
The current anesthesia provider shortage and its impact on Healthcare Systems and Academic Health Centers across the country has been extremely challenging. Healthcare leaders nationwide are increasingly expressing serious concerns about the lack of anesthesia providers to cover inpatient and outpatient surgery sites and procedural anesthetizing sites. Equally concerning is the rapid rise in the cost of anesthesia providers. These recent developments have created uncertainty and frustration for key stakeholders. Physician Hospital Services Consulting (“PHSC”) can provide valuable and timely assistance to help navigating these challenges.
Our Company Profile:
The consultants at Physician Hospital Services Consulting have been providing executive leadership to healthcare systems, academic health centers, hospitals, and practice management companies for over 70 combined years. The principals, Mark Penkhus and Robert Johnson, possess a unique blend of academic, nonprofit, and for-profit healthcare experience, and for the last 15 years have focused on creating solutions for hospitals, large healthcare systems and academic medical centers.
PHSC was created in 2019 to bring practical solutions to hospitals and healthcare systems with specific anesthesia challenges, including increasing financial support, staffing, and best practice management models. Supporting the unique skills of the core executive consultants and a bench of highly skilled staff, are a set of proprietary tools and databases that allow organizations to arrive at solutions that are efficient and practical, and in line with their strategic, operational, and financial needs.
PHSC principals have improved functionality for healthcare organizations with issues involving anesthesia coverage, provider utilization, staffing efficiency, cost efficiencies, and revenue improvement strategies. PHSC’s leadership has helped resolve complex operating and financial problems, while creating positive momentum to enable change. Our consultants use a data driven decision-making approach when evaluating organizational anesthesia challenges. As a consulting firm with leading senior level professionals in the anesthesia industry we pride ourselves in consistently delivering practical and achievable solutions for our clients.
Experience and Expertise Differentiates PHSC from Other Consultants:
PHSC’s extensive experience in hospital operations, healthcare systems and academic medical centers, and provider group management sets us apart. We have firsthand knowledge of all aspects of the hospital- based physician services industry. Our team consists of highly respected senior experts, who understand your environment. In addition to our core team, we network with experts nationwide to meet specific client needs. We have extensive experience with the anesthesia industry and the key leadership of national anesthesia provider groups.
PHSC consultants understand that each health care organization is unique and remain cognizant of that throughout our engagements. We work closely with our clients to understand their short and longer-term goals and objectives to determine where and how we can add the most value. PHSC insists on creating a disciplined approach to managing an engagement.
PHSC Methodology:
The methodology and tools employed on a PHSC engagement vary according to the type of engagement. In just the last year we have performed a variety of engagements in four academic medical centers and five leading healthcare systems to address serious anesthesia staffing shortages, and financial support requests. We collaborate with our clients to implement provider utilization improvements, review current staffing and new surgical and procedural demands. We review compensation packages, restructure anesthesia revenue-cycle management and assist with anesthesia residency programs.
Our methodology involves a sophisticated level of assessment, including a deep dive into relevant documents, in person and virtual interviews with key stakeholders, and application of our proprietary analytic tools. We work diligently to communicate with executive sponsors regarding the deliverables of the engagement. A weekly virtual or in person meeting is scheduled with our client sponsors to review the progress of the engagement and receive guidance from our executive/clinical sponsors. PHSC’s focus with our clients is both short and long-term to address immediate needs and design anesthesia service models for the next three to five years.
Our engagement plan is adopted with client participation, an agreed timeline, and milestones marking success.
PHSC provides a full range of consulting services primarily in the Anesthesia, Hospitalist and Emergency Medicine hospital-based physician segment. 70 percent of our work recently has been in anesthesia services due to the very challenging staffing, costs, and service coverage needs.
Our Services Comprise:
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Hospital based physician services evaluations for healthcare systems, academic health centers, and individual hospitals
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Comprehensive request for proposals (RFP) and evaluation using proprietary comparative analysis, as well as complete management of the RFP process
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Staffing models
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Financial proformas
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Effective term sheets for contract negotiations with vendors
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Professional service agreement models
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Performance metrics for service and quality
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Revenue cycle management
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Employment models
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Infrastructure design as needed
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Negotiations with regional provider groups and national vendors
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PHSC Analytical Tools
Benchmarking with PHSC Subsidy and Resource Databases
Rooms Running Analysis
On-Site Provider Utilization Analysis
PHSC Clients:
While PHSC has a relatively short history as a professionally organized consulting firm, our executive experience and knowledge is extensive and includes many well-respected organizations.
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The strength of our offering is the reputation of our principals for results as reflected in our successful engagements with the clients below.
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University of Texas Tyler
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University of Florida Health
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University of Kansas Health System
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HCA Healthcare
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Common Spirit
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Bon Secours Mercy Health
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Ardent Health Services
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St. Francis Health System
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Advent Health
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Advocate Aurora Health
PHSC Executive Consultants:
Mark L. Penkhus, MHA, MBA, FACHE
Mark is a senior healthcare executive with broad leadership experience in both nationally recognized not for profit and for-profit healthcare corporations. Mark’s leadership experience includes strategy, operations, financial and transformational management. Mark is a facilitator and a change agent working effectively with boards, executive management, and medical staff leadership to align organizational strategies, operating objectives and financial goals through a disciplined data-driven approach and development of creative, clear, executable solutions.
Mark has held senior leadership roles with HCA as National VP for Hospital Based Physician Services, Executive Vice President for Oregon Health and Sciences University, CEO for Vanderbilt University Hospitals, and Managing Partner for Ernst and Young LLC for the Performance Improvement practice in Washington D.C. Mark started his career with Saint Francis Hospital, a major teaching hospital affiliated with the University of Connecticut, followed by working with the Sisters of Charity Healthcare System Hospitals in Colorado and Michigan as COO and CEO, (Now Common Spirit). Mark is the founder and CEO of PHSC, LLC.
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Robert M. Johnson, RCPT, MBA
Bob has extensive experience in leadership roles at various prestigious Academic Healthcare Centers, including Johns Hopkins, Duke, UPMC and Baylor. He began his career in healthcare as a Perfusionist and Cardio-Pulmonary Technologist at Hopkins and later became Hopkins’ Administrator for the Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine under Mark Rogers. MD. Bob’s academic leadership success led to his eventually achieving the positions of Associate COO for Duke Hospital, Vice President of Administration at the Baylor College of Medicine, and Anesthesia Executive Director for UPMC.
Bob left academic healthcare to pursue roles in for-profit companies such as the Chief Business Development Officer for Sheridan Healthcare (now Envision), Vice President for Physician Services at Hospital Corporation of America (HCA) and Vice President for Business Development for Premier Anesthesia (a Jackson Healthcare company). In addition to broad organizational experience, Bob has specialized consulting expertise in assessing staffing, operations, and revenue cycle management of Anesthesia Services. Today, Mr. Johnson is the President of PHSC, LLC and serves as the senior anesthesia consultant for DJ Sullivan (Operating Room Utilization consultants) as needed.
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Jerry Stonemetz, MD
Dr. Stonemetz is a Board-Certified Anesthesiologist who is on staff at the Johns Hopkins Department of Anesthesia and Critical Care Medicine and is currently the department’s Billing & Compliance Officer. Dr. Stonemetz has held various leadership roles at Johns Hopkins, including Medical Director of Perioperative Services where he managed the clinical operations of all surgical procedures. Prior to this role, he was the Vice Chairman of Clinical Operations. Jerry also served as the Medical Director of the Center for Perioperative Optimization, their preoperative assessment clinic. Dr. Stonemetz is the author of Anesthesia Informatics, the only published text book on anesthesia electronic records and an active consultant with PHSC.