Give Physicians Support, Tools to Improve Working Environment

The success, Berry says, came in part because the physicians and the hospital administrators were able to address key concerns around clinical technology and information sharing, and physician leadership. "Those are two areas that healthcare has danced around. This was explicit," Berry says. "This was a group of physicians that not only recognized they had some culture and leadership issues within the group and the service line, but they also agreed they needed some assistance with it. We hired outside consultants to help evaluate the past culture and identify dynamics of a future culture. And I have to applaud the physicians and the staff; they addressed those issues head on and they have made huge cultural changes."

Under the new affiliation, Berry says, the physicians are able to spend more time concentrating on healthcare, attending conferences, and reading, and are more open to interaction with colleagues and hospital administrators. "They really began to see the folks were there to assist and not to dictate. We have created a model that we originally didn't know would exist. We've all learned from it," Berry says.

Enjoy shared success
Berry says they've also gotten compliments from referring physicians. "They talk about the ease of access, the ease of patient information, the collegiality, the respect," she says. "The other piece is that we now have a hospitalist program that is working arm in arm with these cardiologists, whereas before there were episodes where they were adversarial."

Peters says he hopes he can help NMRH expand the model to other key service lines, like surgery, a driver for 65% of all hospitals' bottom lines. "There is always tension between the surgeons and the hospitals and there are complaints that the OR is mismanaged," Peters says. "That same leadership model works well in the OR. Where you put anesthesiologists and surgeons in charge of it by establishing a surgical services executive committee and let them co-manage the ER with a nursing director. You typically get improved surgeon satisfaction, a growth in volume, and improvement in OR profitability."

What should remain constant in any leadership model is giving the physicians as much support as possible to create an effective working environment. "What you do is try to put them in a position of leadership and then give them the tools so they can be successful," Peters says. "It's not treating them like children but treating them as adults and making them responsible but giving them the support they need to do what needs to be done."