Building successful hospital-physician relationships all comes down to successful communication, according to Ray Leggett, president and CEO of CarolinaEast Health System in New Bern, N.C.
He has taken several steps to build relationships with community physicians, including establishing a weekly informal breakfast meeting with physician leaders and a quarterly meeting with the medical staff executive committee, board of directors and the vice president of medical affairs, according to a case study by The Greeley Company.
While establishing strong relationships with area physicians is important to building a strong medical staff, succession planning is equally important so the medical staff can remain strong for years to come. With the help of Greeley Company, Mr. Leggett follows two steps to plan for medical staff succession, according to the case study:
• Identify the average age of the medical staff to find vulnerabilities
• Identify physicians with leadership potential
• Approach the physicians with a single question: "Will you allow the hospital to educate you on leadership issues to prepare you to step into a medical staff leadership position down the road?"