Physician Perspective: Physician Leadership Group Focused on Patient Experience

As the Medical Director of CCH’s Hospitalist Program, Dr. Neuwirth is dedicated to putting patients first. That’s why he helped to start the Physician Leadership Group at CCH this year. He felt strongly that the health system and its medical team needed to more fervently embrace patient-centered care as we move into the future.

“As the Physician Leadership Group, it’s our goal to keep the patient at the forefront of our work,” he states. The group meets regularly to discuss how they can better patient experiences, improve upon quality, and enhance access to care. They also initiate and evaluate Lean process improvement events.

“To me, Lean means reducing waste. In other words, anything patients don’t want to pay for or endure. Patients want to see doctors and get lab and imaging results quickly; they don’t want to wait and get rescheduled or answer the same questions over and over again. The goal of Lean is centered around improving care for patients, not around making our lives easier,” Dr. Neuwirth says.

The Physician Leadership Group is part of a Lean project to lower wait times for patients in the clinics by reducing paperwork. The goal is to reduce paperwork from 39 pages to three, and to decrease wait times from 32 minutes to 12 minutes. After testing in one clinic it will likely be implemented in other areas.

“At times in the past, it has been hard for patients to access care here at CCH, and that’s something we are working to improve—which includes reducing wait times. We are not quite there yet, but we continue to move in that direction,” Neuwirth says.

Dr. Neuwirth believes we have excellent physicians and extremely good nurses: “Our nursing staff here is one of our biggest strengths.”

“Bottom line, we are better than we were before. If you are looking for healthcare elsewhere and you want to reevaluate the new CCH, I encourage you to come in and consult with us or give us a try,” he concludes.

About Dr. Robert Neuwirth
Dr. Neuwirth loves a challenge, and that’s why he chose nephrology as a specialty. Nephrologists specialize in kidney care, including the management of dialysis patients, and evaluation and treatment of complexhypertension and diabetes.

“When deciding on a specialty I wanted one that was highly complex, and nephrology is about as complex as it gets,” states Neuwirth.

Dr. Neuwirth grew up in New York City and completed his medical training in the Dominican Republic and his residency in the Bronx. He ran a large nephrology practice in Florida for several years, before coming to Gillette. He joined Campbell County Health in 2008.

For enjoyment, Dr. Neuwirth and his wife, Mildred, like to travel. He pilots his own small plane and they frequently take trips for pleasure and to visit their four grown children. Recently they visited their daughter Samantha in Iowa City, who is in her second year of residency as an anesthesiologist.