1. Take first impressions seriously during recruitment. Aligning physicians with the goals of your hospital begins with recruitment, Dr. Efferen says. When interviewing physician candidates, trust your instincts: If a candidate seems overly negative or unwilling to compromise, he or she might be difficult to align with in the future. “Sometimes first impressions can be misleading, but it’s a very important first step,” Dr. Efferen says. “Ask yourself: What’s their demeanor? What do they seem interested in? Why did they respond to the recruitment ad? You want to get a sense of their enthusiasm and passion.”
Dr. Efferen says it may be hard to work with people who are entrenched in specific patterns. “If they’re not willing to look outside the proverbial box and make changes, we’re not looking for that kind of physician,” she says. “No matter how good you are, you should look at [processes] and ask what you could do to make them better.”
2. Promote education and communication. In order to align physicians with the hospital’s goals for quality patient care, Dr. Efferen says South Nassau has promoted group discussions about institutional problems. She recommends holding regular education events to help physicians understand the hospital’s current goals, challenges and priorities. “One of our big issues is really placing the patient at the center,” she says. “As we move forward, it’s not just about caring for the patient in the hospital, but in the community as well.” In order to align South Nassau physicians with the goal of patient-centered care, the hospital has reached out to its community-based physicians to gather their input. By involving the physicians in the discussion, the hospital has been able to brainstorm ways to prepare diabetic and COPD patients for continued care outside the hospital.
Dr. Efferen says that while hospitals can make great strides in involving physicians in strategic planning, the long-term solution will be educating physicians at the institutional level. “[Current physicians and nurses] are trained in silos,” she says. “You graduate from medical school and you have some clinical experience, but you’re never really taught how to work as part of a team.” Encouraging teamwork between hospital administration and physicians is the next step in preparing healthcare providers for the future, she says.
3. Talk to your physicians about their needs. Dr. Efferen says one of the best ways to align physicians with the goals of your organization is to talk to them about their needs and concerns. While there will always be clashes between physicians and the administration, being open and receptive to physician feedback can open a constructive dialogue about hospital problems. Dr. Efferen says South Nassau has a clinical chair for each department who holds regular meetings with hospital staff and voluntary staff. “We also have a full-time person who goes out into the community to talk to community-based physicians about what’s going on in their offices,” she says. “We’re looking at our whole process for pre-surgical evaluation and gearing our goals to help physicians and their office staff streamline that process.”
4. Give reasons for tough decisions. In an ideal world, physicians and hospitals would share the same goals. Unfortunately, some situations don’t have an easy compromise, so your administrators have to be ready to make difficult decisions and disappoint your physicians and staff. “About every minute of every day, we have different goals,” says Dr. Efferen. “To the best of our ability, we try to let people in on some things that might have been traditionally kept behind closed doors.” In Dr. Efferen’s experience, your colleagues will accept the denial more easily if they understand the reasons behind it.
You should also make sure different departments are communicating and understand how they can benefit from each other’s gains and successes. For example, an equipment purchase in the radiology department might also benefit physicians in the surgery department. “Encouraging dialogue between departments makes everyone aware of new opportunities,” she says.
5. Focus on projects that excite your physicians. If you want to involve your physicians in cost-cutting measures, focus the initiative on something they can easily invest themselves in, such as the improvement of patient care. Dr. Efferen says it helps to personalize your hospital’s care process issues and ask physicians to consider how they would want the system to work if a family member was undergoing treatment. “Every minute that somebody is spending waiting for a test, those minutes add up into hours and days, and all of that is down time in the hospital,” says Dr. Efferen. “If someone is here half a day longer than they need to be, that’s added cost to the institution. And from a safety and quality perspective, it’s half a day they weren’t able to spend at home or were potentially exposed to harmful things in the hospital.” She says everyone can get excited about improving patient care, and your hospital can also save money by eliminating unnecessary tests and wait time.
Learn more about South Nassau Communities Hospital.
