Physicians are among the most
highly educated groups in our
society. However, as they progress from high school to
college, from medical school to specialty training, the breadth of their
education markedly narrows down. In fact, most physicians as students
are well into their 30s, when they finally go out into the world to
practice a specialty. By this time, they are experts in taking care of
the brain, heart, kidneys and other parts of the body and are mostly quite
good at what they do. If they practice on their own, they often hire a
business manager to run their offices and frequently compete with hospitals
over reimbursement issues. By employing business managers, they are able
to focus on what they do best, that is practice medicine.
Hospitals, on the other hand, are mostly run by men and women
who have either MBA's or degrees in hospital administration. They
understand hospital finances and hotel management, but do not
understand clinical medicine typically. Due to this obvious gap in what
is needed to run a hospital, most boards of trustees of hospitals,
delegate clinical quality and physician credentials to the medical staff.
Furthermore, hospitals find that physician admissions and utilization
of resources are extremely important to their financial stability.
Thus, hospital administrators need and depend on the physicians.
However, they need more than just physicians; they need physician leaders.
Thus, hospitals hire physicians and place them in leadership positions,
such as, department chief, director of medical education and, most
recently, as vice president for medical affairs (medical director), and
this is where the problem arises. |
