Tip of the week: Investing in physician leaders today can lead to major savings tomorrow

Medical staffs that achieve tangible outcomes from their leadership training programs are those that quantify in advance what they expect to get in return from their investment. When determining how much to invest, consider the following statistics:

• Adopting a streamlined fair-hearing process could result in the avoidance of one fair hearing every two years, thereby generating a savings of as much as $15,000 in legal fees
• Reducing the overall medical staff bureaucracy by eliminating two committees at the hospital could result in savings of $2,600 per meeting (national average)
• Expediting the initial application process from 90 days to 60 days may result in a greater number of admissions and outpatient referrals from new physicians joining the medical staff
• Corporate compliance training may save the hospital from future medical record audits and fines by reducing the incidence of inaccurate/fraudulent billing

For more information on training physician leaders, please see The Medical Executive Committee Handbook, Third Edition, by Mary J. Hoppa, MD, MBA; Albert L. Fritz, MHA; and Richard A. Sheff, MD.