Efficiency and effectiveness: beyond internal practice operations.

Physician group practice management teams (physician-administrator teams) have had to become creative in developing efficient and effective practice operations as a result of managed care. For physicians that must use entities outside of the group to deliver care, these physicians must demand that these facilities provide a program that adheres to the principles of "operationally effective and efficient design (OEED)." Programs that comply with the six principles of OEED offer physicians the opportunity to maximize their monetary value of time. Programs that do not follow the OEED principles negatively impact the physicians' monetary value of time. As a result, physician-administrator teams must demand operations improvement from such entities, otherwise alternatives will be sought. Therefore, managed care may not be bad news for physicians.