Ask the expert: What is the definition of a physician executive and what are his or her responsibilities?

Physician executives have long had a role in hospital management. During the 1980s and 1990s, with the advent of a payment system based on diagnostic related groups (DRG) and managed care challenges, physician executives took on important roles. They sometimes played the role of medical director and were responsible for quality and utilization management. Other times they played the role of vice president of medical affairs or chief medical officer serving as part of the hospital’s executive team and usually reported to the CEO.

Today, the role of the physician executive varies widely and includes:

• Serving as liaison between the medical staff and hospital management
• Managing physician relations
• Supporting the hospital as it strives to meet Joint Commission or other regulatory standards
• Providing medical expertise to support utilization review, case management, quality, patient safety, coding, and other activities relevant to physicians
• Providing input into or overseeing the hospital’s medical staff leadership development and succession planning program
• Supporting the hospital’s continuing medical education program
• Overseeing the medical staff office, quality management, risk management, and case management departments, hospital library, and sometimes the coding function
• Overseeing managed care functions
• Taking full profit and loss and budgetary responsibility for the departments that report to him or her

This week’s question and answer are adapted from The Greeley Guide to New Medical Staff Models by Richard A. Sheff, MD, CMSL and William K. Cors, MD, MMM, CMSL.