Ask the expert: At academic medical centers, who appoints the department chairs?

In some academic medical centers, the chair of the medical staff department also serves as the chair of the medical school department. This means the dean or a selection committee has primary or sole authority to appoint the department chair. In other academic medical centers, the academic department chair’s role is separate from the medical staff department chair’s. In such cases, the hospital CEO may have significant authority to appoint the department chair, and the medical school dean has varying degrees of influence on the decision, including co-appointment authority. Academic medical centers do not generally select department chairs through self-government (nominations or election by the members of the department).

This week’s question and answer are excerpted from The Greeley Guide to New Medical Staff Models: Solutions for Changing Physician-Hospital Relations by Richard A. Sheff, MD, CMSL and William K. Cors, MD, MMM, FACPE, CMSL.