Thank You, Conference Contributors!
Dear ASHHRA Colleagues:
The annual conference
is just days away. As you might guess, a conference of this magnitude takes
months of preparation for all involved. I want to share with you the names
of the ASHHRA members who have
devoted a year to helping the ASHHRA
staff and board plan for the ASHHRA
44th Annual Conference and Exposition:
The Annual
Conference Committee
Gary Pastore, chair
Deborah Rubens,
Region 9 (co-chair)
Margo Compagna,
Region 1
Frances Keane, Region
2
Denise O'Hara, Region
3
Tom McCawley, SPHR,
Region 5
Sarah Fredrickson,
Region 6
Irma Pye, SPHR,
Region 7
Dina Steinberg,
Region 8
Kathleen Boisvert
The Host Committee (all in Region 7 and
residents of Texas)
Irma Pye, chair
Jane Lewis
Heather Paris
Laura Light
Giselle Mackie
Eileen Brown
Shelli McVey
Stephanie Gil
Craig Vollmers
Thank you and your
subcommittee members for making this a great conference. I am also grateful
to Executive Director Cathy Sewell and the ASHHRA
staff for listening to members and delivering a conference that surpasses
expectations.
In addition to the
hours of work, a conference also takes funding. I'm proud to say that ASHHRA has incredibly generous sponsors.
Especially in this challenging economic climate, I am thankful to the
following sponsors for making our conference possible:
AHA Solutions, Advanced Professionals
Track / CHROs ASHHRA Centre for
Excellence
AIG Retirement, Monday Evening Social
Event
Buck Consultants, Region 7 Breakfast
Constangy, Brooks
& Smith, LLC, Regions 4 and 6 Breakfasts
Diversified
Investments, Business Meeting Breakfast
Enetrix, Conference Evaluation
Forms
Fidelity
Investments, Community Outreach Reception
Findley Davies, Regions 3 and 5
Breakfasts
Gallagher Benefit
Services, Inc., Region 9 Breakfast
GWFS Equities,
Inc., subsidiary of Great-West Life & Annuity Insurance Company, Hotel Key Cards
Halogen Software,
Inc.,
Message Board
ING, Exhibit Hall Lunch
Co-Sponsor
Integrated
Healthcare Strategies, Opening Keynote Speaker
IRI Consultants,
Inc.,
Logo Wear for Staff, Board, Conference & Host Committee
Jones Day, Labor/Legal Panel
MetLife, Sunday Evening Social
Event
Monster.com, Cyber Station
Morehead
Associates, Inc., Region 2 Breakfast
O.C. Tanner
Company,
Awards
Oracle, Bottled Water
Ormed Information
Systems,
Development Program Track
Pinstripe
Healthcare, Region 8 Breakfast, Live Music & Entertainment
Press Ganey
Associates, Inc., Badge Stock & Lanyards
Segal | Sibson, Region 1 Breakfast
Sullivan, Cotter
& Associates, Inc. (Sullivan Cotter), President’s Opening
Reception
T. Rowe Price
Retirement Plan Services, Board of Directors Lunch
The Hartford, Conference Welcome Kit,
Board of Directors Breakfast
U.S. Nursing / FASTAFF, Fundraiser Décor
Others who deserve
our gratitude are speakers and exhibitors - thank you for sharing your
talents, time, and services - and attendees for your commitment to lifelong
learning and professional development.
As always, if you
have questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me.
See you in Austin!
Regards,
Jeanene Martin,
M.Ed., MPH, SPHR
2008 ASHHRA President
Legal
"Don't
Let Disruptive Physicians Hurt Your Accreditation"
Workforce
"Success
With Staff: How to Become a Top Employer"
"Innovations in
Medical Staff Planning"
"15 Ways to Train on
the Job"
"Internet-Based
Learning in the Health Professions"
Compensation
"Study
Links Primary Care Physician Shortage With Salary Disparities"
"Get What You Pay
For"
General HR
"Passing
Judgment"
"Say Hola! to the
Majority Minority"
"Chaos
Prevention"
Benefits
"Do
Consumer-Directed Health Plans Drive Change in Enrollees' Healthcare
Behavior?"
"Health Care Costs
Increase Strain, Studies Find"
"Six-Stepping Stones
to Achieving a Value-Based Pharmacy Design"
Physicians
"Hospital-Physician
Relations: Two Tracks and the Decline of the Voluntary Medical Staff
Model"
"Follow the
Money"
"Building Physician
Work Hour Regulations From First Principles and Best Evidence"
"Managing the Call
Schedule"
Management and Leadership
"CEO Transition and Succession"
"Don't Let Disruptive Physicians Hurt Your
Accreditation"
Mondaq (09/10/08) Lebowitz, Philip H. ; Russakoff, Nina L.
As of Jan. 1, 2009, The Joint Commission will require hospitals seeking
accreditation to comply with new standards addressing "intimidating
and disruptive behaviors" by workers in a healthcare setting.
Hospitals must implement codes of conduct that define "acceptable and
disruptive and inappropriate behaviors" as well as a process for
"managing disruptive and inappropriate behaviors." Additionally,
The Joint Commission's Medical Staff credentialing process will add
interpersonal skills and professionalism to its core competencies.
Hospitals need to take into consideration different employee categories and
the fact that they are governed by different bylaws or regulations.
Hospitals also should ensure non-physician staff comply with rules set
forth by the hospital's human resources department, while employed
physicians have employment contracts in place. While specific procedures
that take into account each employee category are necessary, experts insist
they should be aligned with the regulations governing other staff.
Additionally, hospitals should spell out the stages of intervention, who is
responsible for disciplinary actions and the safeguards in place to protect
those who report disruptive behavior.
Return to Headlines
"Success With Staff: How to Become a Top
Employer"
Hospitals & Health Networks (09/08)
As the Baby Boomer generation ages, healthcare organizations must prepare
to deal with two major operational obstacles: an increasing number of
workers reaching retirement and an increasing demand for services. To
address these issues, HR professionals must find strategies to retain
older, more experienced workers as well as strategies to recruit and retain
younger generations. Recruiting for many healthcare organizations begins
with solid partnerships with local high schools and universities. Tuition
assistance and loan repayment for healthcare degrees also are great
incentives for young professionals. For those already in the workforce,
many organizations have initiated on-site training programs so current
staff members can obtain advanced nursing degrees or participate in
leadership seminars. Not only do these programs help retain employees, they
also cultivate the skills of the organization's most promising workers.
Although many Baby Boomers are looking to retire, some hospitals are
looking to either retain these workers or bring them back in a part-time
capacity. When catering to different generations of workers, HR
professionals must remain aware of the needs and expectation of each
generation of workers; for example, younger doctors and nurses are more
interested in maintaining a positive work-life balance than their older
counterparts. Different expectations of benefits and leaderships styles are
important to consider when catering to these two groups. Additionally,
younger workers belong to a very value-based generation, meaning they want
to know their employer has a positive impact on the community. Many HR
professionals see this attitude as an asset when looking to recruit
employees, particularly for nursing careers.
Return to Headlines
"Innovations in Medical Staff Planning"
Healthcare Executive (08/08) Vol. 23, No. 4, P. 16; Cameron, Donna J.
Proper management of the physician-hospital relationship is critical for
organizations looking to develop a more strategic partnership. The most
important element when developing a strategic partnership between a
hospital and physician is consistent communication between the hospital and
medical staff regardless of whether it is formal or informal. CEOs should
create an environment of openness in which to begin exploring the various
models for developing partnerships with physicians. Once that environment
has been established, physicians and medical executives can work together
to determine the extent of their partnership opportunities. When viable
opportunities have been identified, the next step is to assess the
obstacles that might get in the way of the partnership's progression. The
first physician-partnership option considered by most hospitals is directly
employing a physician group by owning its practice. This option makes sense
for organizations looking to develop a strategic plan based on
better-integrated data because it allows information to flow freely between
participating physicians and the hospital. While the full-employment model
may be successful for some physician groups, others may prefer greater
autonomy. In this case, the hospitals and physicians should create a
practice management model that offers employment to physicians but does not
ask the hospital to officially own the practices. Whichever option the
hospital chooses, the most important element of successful implementation
is ensuring the inclusion of physicians in the strategic-planning process.
Additionally, hospitals and physicians should seek the advice of attorneys
who are well informed about the legal implications of different partnership
models.
Return to Headlines
"15 Ways to Train on the Job"
HR Magazine (09/08) Vol. 53, No. 9, P. 105; Tyler, Kathryn
In the face of a sluggish economy, many organizations are cutting training
budgets to stay afloat. Experts report that in-house initiatives can be an
efficient way to reduce training costs while actually improving results,
and the top resource employers can tap into peer teaching. Peer teaching
enables experienced workers to pass along their knowledge to younger,
inexperienced workers, but only those employees with coaching ability
should be selected. This technique also utilizes job shadowing and
mentoring to help nurture younger workers, and peer teaching can be
inexpensive alternatives to outsourced coaches. Employers must prioritize
training as part of the firm's overall strategy even in tough economic
times. In-house training courses should be shaped around product knowledge,
cross-training, and inter-departmental cooperation. Inexpensive on-the-job
reminders, including laminated posters or note cards, also can be effective
if used on a daily basis. Even though technology can be useful, it is
sometimes cost prohibitive. However, experts indicate that today,
e-learning modules can be created in-house to reduce the costs of
e-learning. Experts recommend that employers use the resources available to
them and a little innovation to keep their training programs active during
tough economic times.
Return to Headlines
"Internet-Based Learning in the Health
Professions"
Journal of the American Medical Association (09/10/08) Vol. 300, No. 10,
P. 1181; Cook, David A.; Levinson, Anthony J.; Garside, Sarah
Internet-based education has gained a lot of attention as an effective
teaching tool because it allows learners to schedule training time when it
is convenient for them. Internet-based learning programs also facilitate
instructional tools that might not be easily accessible in traditional
formats as well as the ability to customize settings to suit each student's
instructional needs. These advantages make online education a potentially
useful tool for medical education, say researchers. To test the potential
of Internet-based teaching tools compared to traditional techniques,
researchers reviewed 201 studies designed to quantify the educational
outcomes of Internet-based courses. All studies selected were evaluated by
two independent reviewers for study quality, learner characteristics,
learning setting, level of interactivity, practices exercises, online
discussion and duration. Researchers concluded that Internet-based learning
is associated with significant positive effects. However, their findings
did not indicate that Internet-based classes were in any way inherently
superior or inferior to non-Internet instructional methods. The researchers
recommend that further studies be conducted, which are designed to compare
different Internet-based instructional techniques to determine which
methods are most effective.
Return to Headlines
"Study Links Primary Care Physician Shortage
With Salary Disparities"
East Valley Living (Scottsdale, AZ) (09/09/08) Fahmy, Sam
According to a recent study published in the Journal of the American
Medical Association, University of Georgia researchers contend that
physician shortages correlate to low salaries. Nations with lower
percentages of primary care physicians often have higher infant mortality
rates and increased numbers of cancer and heart disease-related deaths. The
study, conducted by University
of Georgia's Dr. Mark
Ebell, examined the starting salaries for physician specialties in 2007 in
relation to the percentage of doctors choosing those specialties and
discovered a specialty's popularity is related to the level of its starting
salary. Ebell says the United
States is hindered by the shortage of
primary care physicians, which prevents the system from offering quality
and efficient healthcare. "Countries with the healthiest primary care
systems tend to have the best health outcomes," he adds. Only 42
percent of residency positions for primary care doctors who earn $185,740
annually are filled each year, but 88.7 percent and 93.8 percent of vacant
radiological and orthopedic specialty residencies earning $400,000 on
average per year, respectively, are filled annually. Ebell recommends
extending debt relief for doctors entering the primary care profession,
particularly in rural and underserved communities.
Return to Headlines
"Get What You Pay For"
Washington SmartCEO (09/08) Vol. 8, No. 9, P. 56; Gajewski, Jeanine
The goal of pay-for-performance compensation programs is to reward
individual accomplishments that aid an organization in meeting its
strategic goals. However, pay-for-performance can easily fail if management
does not fully develop a meaningful program. The first step in developing a
program is to identify the organization's goals and how employees can help
meet those goals. HR and managers will want to define success for each
worker, which will enable employers to easily identify those workers with
stellar performances. Experts suggest creating a pay-for-performance
program with the middle 60 percent of the workforce in mind because this
cross-section can have the greatest impact on the overall performance of an
organization. Once the compensation program is defined, management needs to
communicate the plan to employees, letting them know what management's
performance expectations are. Management should periodically meet with
employees to make sure that they still have the same priorities, and
employees need to be kept abreast of the organization's financial
performance and how it will impact the compensation program.
Return to Headlines
"Passing Judgment"
Conference Board Review (10/08) Vol. 45, No. 5, P. 36; Grote, Dick
Employee performance appraisals are a manager's formal statement about the
quality of one worker's job execution. Managers need to ensure workers
understand that the performance review discussion only occurs so the
employees understand their rating, and the discussion is not an attempt to
garner consensus on the review standards used. Additionally, employee
self-reviews often do not provide employers with perspective on the
employee, but will reveal whether an employee understands their own
performance or not. According to researchers David Dunning and Justin
Kruger, "When people are incompetent in the strategies they adopt to
achieve success and satisfaction, they suffer a dual burden: Not only do
they reach erroneous conclusions and make unfortunate choices, but their
incompetence robs them of the ability to realize it." Research
invariably reflects that employees are not objective in rating their own
performances and those workers who perform poorly tend to be the most off-base.
Managers should be supervised during the performance review process and
performance reports should reflect how managers will gauge work
performances throughout the year, say experts.
Return to Headlines
"Say Hola! to the Majority Minority"
HR Magazine (09/08) Vol. 53, No. 9, P. 38; Wells, Susan J.
With the Hispanic population accounting for 15.1 percent of the U.S.
population, or 45.5 million people, HR professionals need to learn how to
best leverage their skills to recruit and retain talented Hispanic workers.
However, because many of the recruitment and training materials currently
used are for native English speakers, HR professionals have their work cut
out for them. Although diversity continues to be a top priority for many
organizations, the Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility (HACR)
finds that many organizations lack mentoring, succession and career
planning and recruitment strategies for Hispanics. Some Hispanics need
additional language and cultural support from employers, according to
experts. With more and more Hispanics entering the job market, employers
need to step up their recruitment and retention efforts. Economist Louis
E.V. Nevaer says, "HR professionals, as 'strategic solutionists' for their
organizations, need to start thinking about what these changes mean."
Return to Headlines
"Chaos Prevention"
Human Resource Executive (09/08) Vol. 22, No. 12, P. 36; Patton, Carol
There are hundreds of issues a human resources (HR) department must
approach in the merger and acquisition process, and department leaders must
work with executives in finance, IT and payroll to keep the merger from
devolving into bedlam. When Harrah's Entertainment bought out Caesars Palace in May 2005, Payroll Director
Martin Armstrong's first job was to assemble an integration team that
included himself and staff from the finance, benefits, compensation, legal
and IT departments. The team crafted a plan to accomplish all necessary
tasks and who was responsible for each task. HR and payroll began reviewing
expatriate agreements and union contracts and paid close attention to all
of Caesars' third-party vendor relationships, which included health,
disability and life insurance providers, to ensure workers still had
coverage until the end of their contracts. Armstrong notes that using
email, posters and handouts kept employees abreast of the integration
process and any changes. Armstrong and his team tested the payroll system
in advance to make sure it could handle the influx of 50,000 additional
employees. "Standardization of our systems was one way we saved
money," he explained.
Return to Headlines
"Do Consumer-Directed Health Plans Drive Change in Enrollees'
Healthcare Behavior?"
Health Affairs (Quarter 3, 2008) Vol. 27, No. 4, P. 1120; Dixon, Anna;
Greene, Jessica; Hibbard, Judith
Consumer-directed health plans (CDHPs) have become increasingly popular in
recent years, and proponents claim these plans lower healthcare costs and
force consumers to make cost-effective medical decisions. However, critics
argue that the plans can cause workers to delay essential or preventive
medical care, which will only increase medical costs over the long term. To
test this theory, researchers conducted employee surveys at a large
company. Survey respondents were divided into three groups: those who
participated in high-deductible CDHPs, those with low-deductible CDHPs and
those who retained their traditional PPOs. They found that employees with
low-deductible CDHPs were most likely to seek out healthcare information
and make price comparisons, and they were less likely than patients with
high-deductible CDHPs to delay essential healthcare. However, even
low-deductible CDHP patients were more likely to put off medical visits
than patients with PPOs, even if those visits were necessary. Researchers
concluded that CDHPs have a mixed impact with some CDHP patients foregoing
medical treatment and requiring additional monitoring to ensure they do not
jeopardize their health.
Return to Headlines
"Health Care Costs Increase Strain, Studies
Find"
New York Times (09/25/08) Abelson, Reed
On Sept. 24, two new studies by the Kaiser Permanente Foundation and the
Center for Studying Health System Change demonstrate the difficulties many
Americans have with paying their medical bills, even among those Americans
with healthcare coverage. "The problems people are having paying for
healthcare and health insurance are a central dimension of the economic and
pocketbook concerns right now," said Drew E. Altman, the president of
the Kaiser Family Foundation. Even though Congress is currently preoccupied
by the $700 billion rescue plan for the financial market, experts agree
that the rising costs of healthcare must be addressed. Although inflation
among insurance premiums has leveled off in the past decade, Kaiser
researchers found that employees were consistently spending more for health
coverage each year. The average household pays more than $3,300 in premiums
for family coverage, more than twice the amount they paid nine years ago.
According to a study by the Center for Studying Health System Change,
roughly 4 percent of U.S. families considered declaring bankruptcy in 2007
due to difficulties paying medical expenses. The study shows that 57
million Americans live in households burdened with medical debt and of
those 75 percent have health insurance.
Return to Headlines
"Six-Stepping Stones to Achieving a Value-Based
Pharmacy Design"
Employee Benefit News (09/08) Vol. 22, No. 12, P. 44; Watson, Tim
Organizations continue to struggle with healthcare costs for workers, but
experts agree that effective pharmacy program management can reduce those
costs and improve the health of workers. A value-based pharmacy plan can
enable employers to set higher cost-sharing for certain medications, while
ensuring higher medication compliance frequency. For example, treatments
with the best clinical outcomes have the lowest out-of-pocket costs for
employees, while those with moderate to low clinical outcomes have higher
costs for workers. Many employers adopting this plan design started with
heart disease, diabetes and asthma medications, but experts recommend that
employers conduct outcomes research and return on investment evaluations to
ensure value-based programs are efficient and consistent. HR professionals
must examine their workforce to determine which medical conditions are
prevalent, determine the medication possession ratio for each worker in
terms of how often they have access to the necessary treatment and collect
data to create a before program implementation of presenteeism, absenteeism
and medical usage. The program also should have set goals to offset hikes
in prescription drug costs such as reducing hospital and emergency room
visits, improving patient compliance and care quality, reducing absenteeism
and presenteeism and increasing productivity. HR must create communication
channels through which employees can learn about the program and its
benefits, health coaching to ensure medication compliance and other
outreach initiatives. Finally, the program's progress toward the preset
goals should be assessed periodically and examine the upfront costs, fees
and hikes in prescription costs in light of the benefits the program
returns.
Return to Headlines
"Hospital-Physician Relations: Two Tracks and
the Decline of the Voluntary Medical Staff Model"
Health Affairs (Quarter 4, 2008) Vol. 27, No. 5, P. 1305; Casalino,
Lawrence P.; November, Elizabeth A.; Berenson, Robert A.
A recent review of the Community Tracking Study (CTS) reveals that more
hospitals choose to employ physicians, particularly specialists. The study,
which interviewed 453 local healthcare leaders in 12 nationally
representative metropolitan areas, also found many of the physicians not
employed by hospitals are no longer working on call or voluntarily serving
on medical staff committees. Some physicians, in fact, choose to compete
actively with hospitals and create physician-owned specialized facilities
such as ambulatory surgery centers. Some experts point to this increased
competition as one reason hospitals are employing physicians. In the 12
markets analyzed by CTS since 2005, hospitals' employment of specialists
increased in seven of those markets; and primary care physician employment
remained steady in all but three markets, which have seen increases in primary
care physicians. Sixty-eight percent of the 46 hospitals included in the
CTS study employ a large number of specialists, and 84 percent of these
hospitals increased specialist employment in the last two years. The most
commonly employed specialists, according to the survey, are obstetricians,
gynecologists and surgeons, though many hospitals also will employ
physicians specializing in certain procedures. Other forms of
hospital-physician alignments include joint ventures, specialty service
lines and PHOs. Experts agree the shift in the relationship between
hospitals and physicians may end the voluntary medical staff model, which
CTS respondents say could lead to greater coordination between physicians
and hospitals in patient care and quality, improve negotiations with payors
and make available more doctors to treat Medicare and uninsured patients.
Return to Headlines
"Follow the Money"
Marketing Health Services (Quarter 3, 2008) Vol. 28, No. 2, P. 10;
Bavin, Stefoni A.; Wolosin, Robert
Researchers Stefoni Bavin and Robert Wolosin of Press Ganey Associates Inc.
reviewed the independent research firm's National Medical Staff Database to
gauge satisfaction with hospital practice among high-revenue producing
physicians and physicians who generate less revenue. The database features
information on more than 40,000 doctors at 300 hospitals on such topics as
care quality, ease of practice and relationships with hospital leaders.
Researchers analyzed mail and Internet surveys from 300 high-revenue
physicians and 1,000 non-high-revenue physicians and determined overall
mean satisfaction scores of 71.25 and 73.08, respectively. With regard to
quality of patient care, researchers noted little difference in
satisfaction levels. However, non-high-revenue physicians reported higher
levels of satisfaction with hospitals than high-revenue physicians with
regard to "level of information you receive about the strategic plan
for this facility as a whole" and "responsiveness of hospital
administration to ideas and needs of medical staff members." There was
little difference among these physicians when it came to
"communication with hospital administration." Researchers
indicate that lower satisfaction scores among high-revenue physicians
indicates doctors would like more involvement in strategic planning and
hospital operations and that hospitals would be wise to pay attention to
satisfaction levels among these providers, especially as physician turnover
rates rise and more physicians move to ambulatory surgical centers. They
encourage hospitals to seek physician participation in decision making,
have senior leaders send e-mails and newsletters to let physicians know
about recent activity in the hospital, establish a communication plan
involving physicians and hospital leaders and focus on physician
satisfaction at meetings.
Return to Headlines
"Building Physician Work Hour Regulations From
First Principles and Best Evidence"
Journal of the American Medical Association (09/10/08) Vol. 300, No. 10,
P. 1197; Volpp, Kevin G.; Landrigan, Christopher P.
When the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME)
passed work hour standards for resident physicians in 2003, many hoped that
patient safety and quality would improve. However, the Agency for
Healthcare Research and Quality and the Institute of Medicine will conduct
a study on how residents' work hours impact patient safety and how the
relationship between the two can be improved. While work hours have been
limited by the ACGME, residents still are allowed to work up to 30 hours
consecutively, even though laboratory tests and other studies indicate
working 30 hours consecutively can be hazardous. Researchers claim that the
new work hours have failed to improve patient safety because the
intervention design is flawed, compliance with the recommendations is not
ideal and the benefits of reducing physician fatigue may be offset by
healthcare systems overly focused on ensuring high-quality care
transitions. Experts recommend that hospitals revise scheduling for
physicians but adopt a system that best meets their needs. Some options
include restricting shifts to between 16 hours and 18 hours, establishing
mandatory overnight sleep programs and redesigning patient flow and
assignments to even out workflow. Other improvements can include
streamlining sign-out procedures to reduce hand-off errors, establishing
procedures to ensure work hour compliance and organizing staff levels to
meet patient demands more efficiently.
Return to Headlines
"Managing the Call Schedule"
AAOS Now (09/08) Rogers, Carolyn
Call participation rates are declining due to the movement of patients from
on-call physicians to other physicians by managed care organizations,
rising medical liability risk, higher numbers of uninsured patients, lack
of support staff, fatigue and other quality-of-life issues. Physicians once
took call to bolster their practices and gain seniority, but San
Diego-based orthopaedic traumatologist Dr. Jeffrey Mark Smith says that is
no longer the case. According to Smith, "Many orthopaedists and other
specialists find that the unpredictable demands of call are often too detrimental
to the efficiencies required to survive in a private practice. No physician
wants to neglect scheduled office patients or delay scheduled
procedures." Many surgeons are not willing to assume the risk of
caring for patients with complex injuries who probably will not follow up
because they do not have a regular physician, and such situations often are
accompanied by the lack of insurance and the patient's inability to pay.
Smith says surgeons need to take a proactive approach to the call schedule
that takes into consideration medical staff structures, hospital support,
emergency care operations and payment. "Any on-call solution should
focus on the goal of providing the best quality care with optimal
efficiency for a reasonable period of time, at the least cost," says
Smith. "If the plan is fair, these goals are achievable most of the
time." However, a balance must be struck, as high levels of
compensation could lead physicians to take call solely to make money, but
low levels of compensation will discourage them from taking call.
Subspecialization is another important consideration, as generalists might
not have a place in the schedule.
Return to Headlines
Management and Leadership
"CEO Transition and Succession"
Trustee (09/08) Dye, Carson; Fairley, Daniel; Otto, Karen
Drafting a leadership transition and succession plan ahead of time helps a
hospital board find the right CEO while allowing the incumbent to
graciously transition out of the role. The board should decide beforehand
which members will oversee the selection process and which channels for
recruitment will be used. For example, boards must determine if internal
candidates or external candidates will be considered and whether an interim
leader is necessary until a permanent replacement is found. Educating
incoming CEOs about the organization and its goals can improve their
confidence, and it can provide an incumbent CEO with peace of mind that
s/he is transitioning out of a role and leaving it in capable hands. Stakeholders
will want to be a part of the selection process; board members should meet
with them during the planning period and listen to their expectations and
preferences for a new chief executive. While incumbent CEOs may wish to be
a part of the selection process, they should be kept on the sidelines so as
not to intimidate candidates. Incumbent CEOs can consult the hospital
through the transition, but the CEO's office should be ready for the new
CEO. Organizations should have internal mentoring programs in place to help
workers advance up the leadership ladder because internal leaders may frown
upon a board that consistently hires outsiders to fill the CEO position.
Return to Headlines
© Copyright 2008 INFORMATION,
INC.
subscribe :: unsubscribe
|
