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Using Physician Leadership Groups

to Bridge the Clinical, Strategy Divide

ful hospital of tomorrow nursing, and performing limited peer
PART 1 will have figured out how review. In fact, traditional medical staff
to align its administrative committees probably performed this
incentives, the incentives function up until about 10 years ago.
In today’s consumer-centric, out- of its medical staff and the Although the medical structure has
comes-driven healthcare landscape, communities it serves to not changed much today, the responsibil-
coordinated care is the name of the provide the highest level ities and the regulatory requirements
game. of coordinated quality have changed significantly. For example,
Hospitals that succeed in this environ- care. In short, PLGs create the regulatory climate today dictates how
ment will be those that not only share what’s best for physicians, these committees must function, how
information with external partners on the community and the often they meet and who must be on
the care continuum to drive better care hospital. them. This requires medical staff com-
outcomes for patients at lower costs, but mittees to focus most of their time on
also those who break down traditional How do PLGS work? reviewing their compliance with regula-
silos inside their own organizations. BY HERMAN WILLIAMS, MD, MBA, In the past, administra- tions, conducting peer review or other
Physician leadership groups (PLGs) AND CHRIS COOPER, RN, MHA, MIM tors and physicians shared structured duties. The consequence of
are key to chipping away at these inter- a silent agreement between this regulatory mandate is that tradition-
nal organizational silos by fostering themselves. The doctors al medical staff committees have a limit-
mutual trust between a hospital organi- and its physicians must possess if they took care of patients, and the administra- ed amount of time—which hinders their
zation and its physicians—all while driv- are to succeed in building a lasting rela- tors ran the hospital. ability to comprehensively discuss strate-
ing sustained growth and strong opera- tionship is mutual trust. Mutual trust is a As a result of this relationship, admin- gic initiatives.
tional performance. shared belief that you can depend on istrators made many strategic decisions Another limitation on the traditional
each other to achieve a common pur-
What are PLGS? pose. with little or no input from the medical structure is that these meetings typically
PLGs have been around for more than Why now? The need for PLGs has staff. As healthcare has evolved, though, occur during the lunch hour or early
the need for a more coordinated deci-
morning and are limited to about an
15 years, and more than 500 hospitals always been present. It creates a multi- sion-making process is essential to suc- hour, giving rise to appropriate concern
have initiated them to enhance the rela- specialty, diverse group of physician cess. from physicians about having enough
tionship between their senior hospital advisors for the CEO that provides the PLGs function as an “executive cabi- time for their daily duties.
leadership team and physicians by best leadership for developing hospital net” to the CEO and his or her adminis- Tune in next month as we dive into the
engaging a small group of medical staff strategy. However, the pressures that trative team. They typically meet on a fundamentals of PLGS and what the
leaders. exist today have created an urgency to regular schedule (monthly is preferred), future holds for them!
By enhancing this teamwork, hospitals improve the alignment between these and the meetings usually take place at a BDO’s Healthcare Resource
can develop strategies that include sig- two important stakeholders to respond local restaurant in an informal environ- Optimization team helps health systems
nificant input from the medical staff and to the increasing public demands for ment. The focus of meeting agendas is optimize assets, operations and work-
provide the best quality of care to the accountability and quality transparency. for physicians to voice their concerns force to achieve better financial returns
communities they serve. The single most Public reporting mandates have set the while a running list of potential solu- and the best use of resources. We can
important quality a hospital organization stage for a new partnership. The success-
tions, called the issues and actions list, is help organizations design and execute
kept. The premise for PLGs is that when new work plans—including those
the CEO has input from physicians on involving PLGs—to ensure outcomes
strategic initiatives and/or is made aware align with the industry’s better perform-
of important physician needs, the output ers.
is an aligned quality product for the
community. Learn more about how your health sys-
tem can establish a PLG strategy.
What are the differences
between PLGS and traditional Herman Williams and Chris Cooper are
medical staff committees? Managing Directors at BDO.
Why can’t the traditional medical staff
committees, like the medical executive Contact:
committee (MEC), perform this func- Alfredo Cepero, Managing Partner
tion? In the past, traditional medical staff 305-420-8006/ acepero@bdo.com
committees, such as the MEC, credential
and quality committees, focused on com- Angelo Pirozzi, Partner
municating announcements, providing 646-520-2870 / apirozzi@bdo.com
updates from the administration and

10 October 2019 southfloridahospitalnews.com South Florida Hospital News