Medical staff leadership positions: Are they really jobs?

Once upon a time, key medical staff leadership positions (officers, department chairs, credentials chair, peer review chair) were viewed as important voluntary positions to help the medical staff carry out its board designated responsibility to ensure the care provided primarily by individuals granted privileges. Officers and department chairs were generally elected by their peers. Key committee chairs were usually appointed by the elected officers, usually the medical staff president. On some level it was indeed a privilege and an honor to hold one of these leadership roles.

But now there is an ever changing and very different social contract between medical staffs and hospitals. There is a multitude of reasons for these changes, including: decreasing reimbursement for clinical practice; increasing requirements for safety, quality, and documentation; and decreasing physician time for what is often viewed as increasingly irrelevant organized medical staff responsibilities. Because of all this, medical staff leadership positions are now often viewed as true "jobs" for which physicians should be adequately compensated. And it appears that there is no turning back.

If these positions are jobs, then what factors are required for success moving forward? There are a number of considerations, including:

• Job: Yes or no?
• Job description: If these truly are jobs, then what is the job description?
• Job requirements: What does a physician need to know to do the job?
• Job preparation: If a physician does not meet the requirements, how can he or she prepare for the job?
• Job compensation: Is there compensation? Who pays?
• Elected or appointed: Who decides? How? (This is a bigger deal than most think.)
• Job performance evaluation: Is there one? What do we ask? Who fills them out?

Source: Medical Staff Briefing