Germane Solutions
A Change Agent in Graduate Medical Education

Graduate Medical Education (GME) is proving to be an essential component in combating the increasing physician shortage. Germane Solutions, a trusted and predominant GME consulting firm, finds its roots in this purpose and is considered a trusted advisor in academic medicine to its hundreds of clients across the U.S.

Specializing in five service lines: strategy, finance, operations, accreditation, and community and population health, Germane Solutions provides tailored GME solutions that create profitable and sustainable physician pipelines.

Preeminent thought leaders, Susan Hearn-Stiffler and Germane Solutions founder, Art Boll, witnessed first-hand the consequences of the increasing physician shortage and identified GME as the solution. Drawing from over 40 years of experience in the healthcare industry, Germane Solutions CEO and founder evaluated how GME can contribute to helping healthcare organizations achieve their short and long-term academic medicine goals. Germane Solutions’ founder started the firm in 2013 with a vision to revolutionize the delivery of academic medicine and GME. For the last twenty years, the firm has done exactly that.

“Our sole focus on GME and academic medicine makes a world of difference in the U.S. healthcare consulting, sharply increasing the volume of physicians and improving patient access to care,” says Susan M. Hearn-Stiffler, CEO of Germane Solutions.

Germane Solutions takes a multipronged approach to help healthcare organizations set up and optimize advanced resident training programs, with Germane Solutions’ financial expertise being essential in assisting the firm to identify ways to increase GME funding and create access to care also while serving underserved, marginalized, and rural communities.

Additionally, Germane Solutions empowers its team members and clients to be change agents— positively impacting the physician shortage and improving the health status of the population. The creation of over 150 GME projects, 40 system-wide strategies, and 7,602 GME training positions every year is a testament to Germane Solutions’ unmatched capabilities in addressing the current dilemma and its toll on public health.

When pandemic-induced financial pressure and instability caused a major consolidation in healthcare systems, Germane Solutions adopted a targeted approach to creating a financial blueprint that generated long-term funding for many of its clients. Its financial experts delve into cost reports to review and ensure all claims for GME reimbursement are accurate while minimizing audit risks. Further, Germane Solutions’ strong knowledge of accreditation allowed the consulting firm to evaluate and create better outcomes for every client.

However, one of Germane Solution’s greatest strengthens is its ability to evaluate and implement systemwide strategies. Germane Solutions understands the day-to-day operations of its clients and designs innovative solutions and strategies to develop new residency and fellowship programs. The firm even considers opportunities for programs to increase or retain the number of physicians at the state level.

Overall, excellence at Germane Solutions is driven by an elite group of experts and leaders who work holistically with healthcare organizations, irrespective of size, scope of services, and strategic interests. The relationship the firm builds with its clients is second to none. Its leadership team constantly listens to its clients’ needs, assisting them in reviewing, developing, and improving their operations with a unified goal to ensure they have the right processes, personnel, and resources to organize GME programs.

With Germane Solutions as their trusted advisor in academic medicine, an ever-growing clientele comprised of health systems, community hospitals, clinics, and medical institutions are confident they are employing strategies that remedy the physician shortage.