Changes: Are you ready to lead?

I am very aware that as a consultant to medical staff organizations and hospitals across the country, much of what I do is to recommend changes in policies, procedures and processes and then help organizations make those changes.  Recommendations for change are not always received as "good news" by all parties.

We recognize that change is not always easy for many individuals who serve as medical staff leaders or who work in medical staff services.  What is perceived as good news to the CEO or board may be negatively received by the medical staff professional or the chief of staff.  After all, there may be processes in place that have served an organization well for a number of years, and changing policies, procedures and processes can be difficult to accomplish. 

In the world of medical staff organizations, we have to react to changes that are outside of our control (for example, if CMS or the Joint Commission mandates new standards or requirements, we have to react to the change).  That can be difficult and aggravating, particularly if we don't agree with the new standard or requirement.

Secondly, we may have to react to administrative mandates within our own organizations.  For example, your organization may decide to go through a productivity analysis (which has the potential to result in numerous changes), and therefore you need to participate in the productivity analysis whether you find the process value-added or not.

Fortunately, forward-thinking medical staff leaders and MSPs are proactively making changes before anyone tells them that they are required to do so.  Among these changes:

• Modernizing the medical staff categories to reflect today's needs, rather than keeping the categories that we've historically used for the past 20-30 years.  Do we really need categories for active, provisional, courtesy, consulting, affiliate, honorary, adjunct, house staff, etc. today?  Some organizations have decided that they need just two: voting and non-voting, or active and affiliate.

• Stopping the practice of requiring applicants for membership to the medical staff or applicants for privileges to provide endless copies of documents that will ultimately be primary-source verified.  Do we really need to obtain (and punch holes in and file) copies of board certificates, licenses, diplomas, etc.?

• Eliminating committees that are traditional, but no longer required or relevant.  Some organizations are assigning a single physician to accomplish a function that used to require an entire committee.  The single physician is empowered to obtain input from additional specialties or stakeholders when it is necessary to do so.

• Designing and implementing a medical staff organization Web site that provides access to medical staff bylaws, rules and regulations, policies and procedures (documents that in the past were printed and mailed to new applicants).

• And of course, the evolution towards paperless credentialing.  Some organizations are proactively eliminating the paper from the credentialing process by using their credentialing databases more effectively and/or deploying technology in a way that saves time and trees. 

I was in a medical center recently where a study was done of the use of copy paper.  It was found that the medical staff office was responsible for 75% of the consumption of the entire organization's supply of copy paper!  This medical staff office will be moving towards paperless credentialing processing (and paperless meeting management as well), but not because they were proactive.  It is a mandate from administration. 

Don't wait until someone forces you into change. Think of changes that you can make in your medical staff organization or medical staff office that would

• increase effectiveness

• save time, resources, and trees

• reduce unnecessary complexity

• improve communication

   

"All things should be made as simple as possible, but not more so." 

Albert Einstein

Until next week,

Vicki L. Searcy, CPMSM
Practice Director, Credentialing & Privileging
The Greeley Company
vsearcy@greeley.com
www.greeley.com