Aligning the Clinical Workforce to Improve Care Delivery & Patient Access
Aligned care teams can enhance clinical performance and financial sustainability, improve care delivery and patient access, and support organizational strategy.
Contact Us to Get Started
Navigating a New Era of Clinical Workforce Complexity
As clinical care models evolve, leaders must balance productivity, access, engagement, compensation, and care quality—often without the data or frameworks needed to guide decisions. Without a coordinated, data-driven approach, organizations face unclear roles, inefficient team structures, and misaligned incentives. Effective solutions must be tailored to specialty care teams, aligned with service line priorities, and sustainable for both the workforce and organizational finances.
Key Challenges for Clinical Teams
Unclear Roles
Inefficient Team Structures
Misaligned Incentives
Inconsistent Performance
Partnering with SullivanCotter
Building the Clinical Workforce for What’s Next
SullivanCotter partners with hospitals, health systems, service lines, and medical groups to design clinical workforce strategies that strengthen collaboration between physicians and advanced practice providers while supporting the shift toward integrated, team-based care delivery models.
Drawing on deep health care expertise and industry-leading workforce, compensation, and work effort data, we help leaders evaluate workforce structures and clarify roles across the care team, ensuring physicians, APPs, and supporting clinical staff are working at the top of their training and competency. We also develop performance and compensation frameworks that promote alignment, accountability, and engagement.
By connecting workforce planning, leadership structures, and total rewards strategies to broader organizational goals, we help organizations build clinical teams that are effectively deployed, aligned to care delivery needs, and positioned to support sustainable performance.
How We Help
SullivanCotter helps organizations optimize clinical workforce performance by aligning care team design, leadership structures, compensation, and workforce planning with evolving care delivery needs. Our approach ensures physicians, APPs, and the broader care team are effectively deployed and working at the top of their license.
Evaluate how physicians, APPs, and care teams are deployed today—identifying opportunities to improve utilization, strengthen engagement, and reduce inefficiencies across care delivery.
Design and refine care team models that clarify roles, improve collaboration, and ensure each member of the care team is contributing at the top of their license.
Develop individual and team-based compensation programs that align incentives with productivity, quality, and organizational goals—supporting collaboration across the care team.
Align clinical leadership roles and reporting structures to support decision-making, accountability, and effective care team management.
Establish structured, data-driven workforce planning processes that align staffing models with current demand and future organizational needs.
Design strategies to attract, integrate, and retain clinical talent—supporting stronger engagement and long-term workforce stability.
Assess, design and negotiate professional services agreements that promote improved performance and alignment with organizational goals.
Assess the compliance of your APP and physician program related to attribution, funds flow, revenue/expense and aligned with the updated regulatory and compliance rules.
Case Study
Redesigning Care Teams to Unlock Access
Client
Large Academic Medical Center with 700+ APPs
Strategic Focus
Address variation in APP practice, clarify care team roles, and improve engagement across key specialties
Challenge
Variation in APP practice, alignment and clarity of roles, creating unengaged providers and high APP turnover
With the need for a high-performing APP workforce growing in importance, SullivanCotter partnered with a large academic medical center to redesign its care model—bringing greater clarity to physician, APP, and broader care team roles while enabling providers to work more fully at the top of their license. Through a structured, data-driven approach, the organization improved care team alignment, increased provider utilization, and strengthened engagement—resulting in measurable gains in patient access, efficiency, and workforce stability.
Read the Case Study
“In today’s environment, organizations must intentionally design how their clinical teams work together—aligning roles, structure, and incentives so every member of the care team is positioned to contribute at the highest level.”
Amy Noecker, Managing Principal, SullivanCotter
Surveys: Insights on Physician and Clinical Workforce Practices
SullivanCotter’s industry-leading surveys provide comprehensive insight into physician and advanced practice provider compensation, productivity, and evolving pay practices—helping organizations benchmark against the market and inform more effective workforce and compensation strategies.
Advanced Practice Provider Leadership and Organizational Survey
As health care organizations seek to transform care delivery by improving access, quality, services, and affordability, supporting the advanced practice provider (APP) workforce and optimizing leadership practices are essential. This survey highlights leadership roles, integration strategies, and workplace infrastructure for better APP workforce management.
Physician and APP CPT Work RVU Benchmark Study
This study provides CPT coding data based on 2025 and 2026 Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Physician Fee Schedules. It enables organizations to identify specialty differences and analyze the projected impact of updating physician fee schedules in productivity-based compensation plans.
Pulse on the Industry
Stay up to date with the latest insights on clinical workforce strategy, including physician productivity, APP utilization, care team design, and emerging workforce trends.
Let’s Architect Your Solution
Ready to strengthen clinical workforce performance and optimize how your care teams deliver value? Contact SullivanCotter to get started.
Get Connected
