Start all meetings on time

Dear Medical Staff Leader: Start All Meetings on Time

The meeting was called for noon. It's now 10 minutes past and only three people of the 14 scheduled to attend are sitting in the meeting room. If it's your meeting to chair, what should you do?

As a physician, when presented with a symptom, you would look for the underlying cause. You should apply this approach when people consistently show up late to your meeting. What is the cause? The most likely answers are

• the meeting never started on time in the past
• those not in the room are busy providing care, completing charts, or making phone calls

These absent physicians have prioritized these tasks above getting to your meeting on time. What can you do to make them more likely to choose to be at your meeting? First, start your meeting on time. The business of the meeting should commence exactly at noon. This is only possible if your quorum requirement is "those present and eligible to vote." The only medical staff committee or department that needs a more stringent quorum requirement is the medical executive committee (MEC). Because all other medical staff committees and departments make recommendations to the MEC, the MEC has the authority to act.

Once you start the meeting, if anybody comes late, do not repeat the information covered before they arrived. Do not repeat any vote that was taken prior to their arrival, even if they are a key stakeholder in that decision. By coming late to your meeting, they have forfeited that right.

Another way to change your culture of timeliness is to reward those who arrive on time. Some medical staff leaders do this by holding a raffle for a small gift. Physicians must arrive for the meeting at the scheduled start time and stay for the whole meeting to be eligible for the raffle. You will be surprised that such a small change can have a big impact on how many people will be there at the start time for your next meeting.

Following these simple suggestions will dramatically increase the likelihood of physicians showing up on time to your next meeting.

That's all for this week!

All the best,

Rick Sheff, MD
http://www.greeley.com/seminars/