The physician-hospital relationship is more critical today than ever. A hospital’s best intentions to align with its physicians may fail unless leaders understand the pros and cons for both the hospital and any involved...
Medical staff leaders have important roles and responsibilities. When a leader steps into a new role, he or she should be fully oriented to prevent delays in fulfilling the responsibilities of the position. Any medical staff...
This column concludes a series devoted to the many medical staff models that have cropped up in recent years. This series has also discussed how you can implement these models in your own medical staffs.
There are five components of a truly effective medical staff. Last month’s column explored three of the five: culture, collaboration, and communication. This month, we conclude with the remaining two: medical staff structure and processes and leadership.
Last month, I explained that many medical staff leaders are still challenged in maintaining effective and relevant medical staff structures. This month’s column will explore three of the five facets of effective medical staffs: culture, collaboration, and communication. I...
The traditional self-governing medical staff is alive, and in many cases, necessary. Both regulatory standards and case law have made it clear that the medical staff is accountable to the governing body to oversee and manage the quality of medical care in the hospital...
As we mentioned in last month's column, an increasing number of hospitals are choosing to employ physicians. Unfortunately, many organizations have a shotgun approach to employment and hire any physician who qualifies for medical staff membership and clinical privileges. Or worse,...
Many medical staff and hospital leaders believe that employment is a panacea for misaligned incentives that currently characterize physician-hospital relationships. The bottom line is that physician employment can relieve some symptoms of misalignment if implemented correctly, but it is not a...
Last month, I wrote about a problem many organizations face when implementing clinical service lines. The way many clinical service lines are currently structured, it is unclear who owns the responsibility of ensuring physician performance—the organized medical staff, through its relevant...
Hospitals and health systems are increasingly interested in designing and implementing clinical specialty service lines. Clinical service lines are designed to cut across organizational and disciplinary boundaries to organize patient care around one of the following:
• Specific diseases,...
