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Dr. Laura Medford-Davis

PartnerHouston

Leads McKinsey’s patient access work in North America and globally, with a focus on growth and performance improvement through physician workforce strategy, clinical operations, and innovative care delivery models

Laura is a practicing, board-certified emergency physician who leads our physician work and coleads clinical operations within our Provider Performance Practice, including our physician insights surveys. She is most passionate about growth, operations, and culture work that increases patient access to care while improving experience for both patients and frontline physicians and healthcare workers.

Laura supports public, private, and academic healthcare providers, care delivery systems, and integrated delivery networks (IDNs) across the care continuum in the United States and globally to drive growth and step-change improvements in their performance. She has deep expertise in strategy development and operational implementation, including the organizational and cultural changes needed for sustainability all the way from the board and top team to the physicians, nurses, and care team members delivering care day to day.

Examples of her recent client work include:

  • redesigning care team delivery model and scheduling operations to increase appointments by 30 percent for an outpatient provider
  • developing service line growth strategy for a provider health system
  • redesigning the clinical staffing model and incentive and performance management system to increase clinical workforce productivity by 10 percent for a public national healthcare system
  • leading sales force, clinical workforce, and broader operating model redesign to accelerate growth for a post-acute care provider
  • designing and aligning with academic physician stakeholders on a new operating model (e.g., governance, roles and responsibilities, incentive pay structure) and cost-savings initiatives
  • building referral management systems to ensure timely access to needed in-network specialty care
  • redesigning care delivery models in an integrated health system that led to 8 percent faster patient recovery and improved enterprise margins across both payer and provider businesses
  • leading physician communications and change management strategy and care protocol alignment, which resulted in successful participation in Medicare value-based care program
  • designing strategy and implementation plans for virtual health scale-up
  • building go-to-market strategy for Hospital at Home models
  • developing and transferring an algorithm to connect health plan members to higher quality and lower cost primary care closer to their homes

Laura also enjoys practicing emergency medicine, taking part in outdoor activities—including running, downhill skiing, hiking, and backpacking—and spending time with her husband, daughter, and two rescue dogs.

  • Healthcare

PUBLICATIONS

The physician shortage isn’t going anywhere,” McKinsey & Company, September 2024

How to attract and retain physicians in a challenging labor market,” blog entry, McKinsey & Company, September 2024

Potential US health care savings based on clinician views of feasible site-of-care shifts,” Jama Network Open, August 2024, Volume 7, Number 8.

How Latin American physicians view the future of healthcare,” McKinsey & Company, April 2022

Patients love telehealth—physicians are not so sure,” McKinsey & Company, February 2022

Physician employment: The path forward in the COVID-19 era,” McKinsey & Company, July 2020

Physicians examine options in a post-COVID-19 era,” McKinsey & Company, June 2020

Which transfers can we avoid: Multi-state analysis of factors associated with discharge home without procedure after ED to ED transfer for traumatic injury,” American Journal of Emergency Medicine, 2018, Volume 36, Number 5.

The role of mental health disease in potentially preventable hospitalizations: Findings from a large state,” Medical Care, 2018, Volume 56, Number 1.

Value-based approaches for emergency care in a new era,” Annals of Emergency Medicine, 2017, Volume 69, Number 6.

The impact of insurance status on outcomes and use of rehabilitation services in acute ischemic stroke: Findings from Get With The Guidelines-Stroke,” Journal of the American Heart Association, 2016 Volume 5, Number 11.

Health information exchange: What do patients want?,” Health Informatics Journal, June 2016, Volume 23, Number 4.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act’s impact on emergency medicine: A synthesis of the data,” Annals of Emergency Medicine, 2015, Volume 66, Number 5.

PAST EXPERIENCE

Baylor College of Medicine/Ben Taub General Hospital (CURRENT)
Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine

American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP)
Councilor and Emergency Medicine Practice Subcommittee Chair

Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation (CMMI)
Fellow

Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics at Univ of Pennsylvania
Fellow

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation National Clinical Scholars Program
Scholar

World Health Organization (WHO) Office of the Director General
Intern

National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Research Fellow

EDUCATION

University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
MS, Health Policy Research

Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA
MD

University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK
BA, Psychology
BA, Spanish