The Exec: SSM Health CMO Shares Tips for Succeeding in Physician Development

The primary elements of physician development include effective onboarding, education, and mentorship, this new hospital CMO says.

CMOs and health systems need to be intentional about physician development, according to the new CMO of two Oklahoma-based SSM Health hospitals.

Mike Angelidis, MD, was recently named CMO of SSM Health St. Anthony Hospital-Midwest and SSM Health St. Anthony Hospital-Shawnee. He previously held leadership roles at Tulsa, Oklahoma-based Saint Francis Health System, including serving as system medical director of hospitalist services.

"When we talk about physician development, the first thing to note is that healthcare organizations and leaders need to be invested in education," Angelidis says. "Organizations and leaders need to invest in medical schools, residencies, and fellowships."

At SSM Health for example, the health system supports physicians who want to enroll in continuing medical education and degree programs.

"If you are a physician and you want to get an MBA, SSM will help support pursuing that degree with funding," Angelidis says.

Physician development starts with a strong onboarding program, Angelidis explains.

"You need an onboarding process, so when physicians come into your organization, they understand what they need to do to succeed in your organization," Angelidis says. "In addition, as part of the interview process, you want to make sure that you are bringing in physicians who can help build the culture you are trying to achieve."

A good onboarding program helps lay the foundation for physicians to play leadership roles in the organization, according to Angelidis.

"In that respect, you need to have an onboarding process that focuses on culture," Angelidis says. "You need to emphasize the culture of your organization and make sure that physicians are aligned with your mission and values."

Other elements of a good onboarding program include training in the electronic medical record and connecting physicians with a mentor in their specialty, Angelidis explains.

A building block for physician mentoring and coaching is building trust, according to Angelidis.

"You must have two people who want to be engaged in a mentoring relationship," Angelidis says. "As a mentor, it is important to show vulnerability, which helps to build trust."

A mentor should help establish goals for the person they are mentoring, Angelidis explains. With trust and goals established, a mentor should cultivate the relationship with a growth mindset to help mentees continually improve.

"If the goal is clinical, you can encourage a mentee to grow as a clinician," Angelidis says. "If the goal is leadership, you can encourage a mentee along that path such as joining committees and pursuing education in hospital management."

Mike Angelidis, MD, is CMO of SSM Health St. Anthony Hospital-Midwest and SSM Health St. Anthony Hospital-Shawnee. Photo courtesy of SSM Health.

Succeeding in quality improvement

Promoting quality improvement is one of the most rewarding aspects of being a CMO, according to Angelidis.

"You can impact a process. You can improve workflows and the satisfaction of your frontline staff," Angelidis says. "You can improve aspects of quality that impact thousands of people."

There are essential steps in starting a quality improvement project, Angelidis explains. When developing a quality project, the first step is determining the purpose of the project and the ideal end state.

"Then you need support from your organization," Angelidis says. "You need to make sure that the goals you are setting for the project are aligned with the mission and values of the organization."

Once the foundation for a quality improvement project has been set, CMOs and project leaders need to look at how they are going to attack the problem that the project is designed to solve, Angelidis explains.

"You want to determine the data that you need for the project to be successful," Angelidis says. "You want to determine whether there is going to be a single leader guiding the project or a group guiding the project. You want to determine the key stakeholders or champions who are going to help deliver whatever you are trying to accomplish."

CMOs and other healthcare leaders also need to be systematic in choosing an approach to a quality improvement project, according to Angelidis.

"You need to set key performance indicators," Angelidis says. "You need to set a clear path to the ideal state—you try to predict how long it will take to implement a project, set check-ins to monitor progress, and look for early wins."

Transformative leadership

A primary skill for CMOs is transformative leadership, Angelidis explains.

"Transformative leadership involves being the kind of leader who takes people on a journey," Angelidis says. "A transformative leader is someone who has a vision and has the ability to get people behind the vision to accomplish it."

Transformative leadership requires the ability to build relationships, according to Angelidis.

"You must be able to identify the key relationships," Angelidis says. "For example, if you are trying to expand a service line, you must be able to identify who the key players are and the players you need to have a relationship with, so they can believe in your vision."

A transformative leader needs to be a good communicator, Angelidis explains.

"Transformative leaders need to be able to communicate their vision and why it is good for the organization," Angelidis says. "They need to be able to communicate the end goal."

Just like a good physician mentor, transformative leaders have a growth mindset, according to Angelidis.

"A growth mindset includes the ability to think about how you can grow as a leader and how you can look at a problem and come at it with a different angle," Angelidis says.