Medical Staff

New medical staff models...let me count the ways

Medical Staff Affairs Monthly, July 9, 2008

In August 2008, a new book entitled The Greeley Guide to New Medical Staff Models: Contemporary Solutions for Today’s Physician-Hospital Relationship Challenges will be released. Coauthored by Rick Sheff, chairman and executive director of The Greeley Company, and me, the book is a direct response to a question asked by physicians and hospital CEOs over the past several years. That question is:

“The old medical staff model is dead. What’s the new one?”

The answer is based upon The Greeley Company’s extensive experience working with hospitals and medical staffs for the past four decades. Today, The Greeley Company consults with hundreds of hospitals, medical staffs, and other physician organizations each year, in every state and every community across America. We experience firsthand the challenges confronting hospitals and physicians. We also have the privilege to witness examples of outstanding leadership from physicians, hospital managers, and board members that are giving rise to a wide spectrum of experiments in how physicians and hospitals can come together to better align physician and hospital interests and tackle the challenges facing healthcare today.

It might surprise readers to learn that during our consulting and research, at least 17 different medical staff models were identified. The book includes a comprehensive review of the new medical staff models popping up across the country, each of which might be considered a candidate for the new medical staff model. The book examines the strengths and weaknesses of each model, and it becomes clear very quickly that there is no “one size fits all” solution. Instead, almost all medical staffs will be forced to integrate multiple models into a coherent approach to aligning physicians and hospitals today.
 
This creates a unique set of circumstances that can represent both danger and opportunity to physicians and hospitals across the country. The strategy is to identify which specific medical staff models best help achieve certain key goals for hospitals and medical staffs. One chapter in the book includes a spreadsheet that, at a glance, allows physician and hospital leaders to determine which goals are most important to them and select the best models to help achieve those goals.
 
As with any change, there will be a spectrum of responses, ranging from outright rejection to abject acceptance. The successful management of this interface between physicians and hospitals will be the hallmark of strategically successful organizations, but it doesn’t happen by chance. It requires knowledgeable leaders with excellent communication skills, experience in principled negotiation, and healthy doses of compassion and empathy. Leaders from the medical staff and the hospital need to have a toolkit and a road map to build better physician-hospital relationships, with the goal of achieving physician success, hospital success and quality care for the community. The book concludes with a ten step-process to achieve this goal.

This column has repeatedly raised the question: ”Where are the leaders?” Now more than ever, strong medical and healthcare leadership is required to do the right thing, ensure patient safety, and help physicians be the best that they can be. The Greeley Company has long provided medical staff leadership training to help prepare the leaders of today and tomorrow. Let us know if we can be of help. Until next time, be the best that you can be.

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