Give Your Physicians an Incentive to Lead

Hensing says a key change in the attitude physicians take on the initiatives is reflected by the board's trust in site-specific CMOs and chief nursing officer.

"The key leaders at our hospitals are the CMOs and the CNO," he says. "They are partners in clinical performance at the facility and are key in their ability to work together and to prioritize a collaboration. Nursing is at least as important."

Though Hensing doesn't think Banner has exactly figured out the challenge of motivating practice changes in physicians, it has changed the often contentious nature of the relationships between physicians and "corporate." When physicians think of autonomy as being able to do what they think is most effective for the patient, they're on the wrong track, he says. Decisions have to be backed up with clinical data.