Ask the expert: We are looking for a new way to pay medical staff leaders that goes beyond a flat fee approach. Do you have any suggestions?

A progressive approach is to pay medical staff leadership based on the accomplishments of key goals and objectives and not merely on the time spent in leadership roles. For example, at Memorial Hospital in North Conway, NH, physician leaders were paid based on a job description created for each leader. If the leaders attended meetings and completed the tasks in the job description, they received the full stipend. If the leaders missed or did not complete the tasks to the satisfaction of the Medical Executive Committee or president of the medical staff, they received a partial payment or did not receive any payment that month.

Management works in a world of accountabilities with performance expectations, performance evaluations, and compensation based in part on completion of desired goals, and this should be mirrored in the way that medical staff leaders are paid.

This week’s question and answer are from Medical Staff Leadership Essentials: A Guide to Developing Leadership Skills and Recruiting the Next Generation,by R. Dean White, DDS, MS.