Ask the expert: As a medical staff leader, I am charged with providing physicians with feedback. What is the best way to do that?

When meeting one-on-one with a physician to provide him or her with feedback, keep the following tips in mind:
 

• Accentuate the positive: Even if the goal of your meeting is to provide constructive criticism to a physician, start by pointing to specific events that merit recognition.
• Separate the person from the behavior: Managers should not mentally convert good colleagues into problem physicians. A physician may pose behavioral challenges that require attention, but that doesn’t make him or her into a “problem physician.”
• Tell the truth: When discussing mediocre or poor performance, be concise, concrete, and current. Turn to recent incidents that require attention. Hold back or sugar-coating relevant performance data robs physicians of the opportunity to learn from their mistakes.
• Set mutual goals: At the end of the meeting, the manager and physician should draft a concise summary of the physician’s performance compared to the organization’s expectations. Then set goals according to that feedback. For each subsequent physician appraisal review, the manager and physician can refine goals based on the physician’s progress or any other performance issues that may crop up.

This week’s question and answer are from The Greeley Guide to Physician Employment and Contracting by William K. Cors, MD, MMM, FACPE, CMSL and Richard A. Sheff, MD, CMSL.