“Sometimes I feel the physicians demonize us for the decisions we make because they don’t understand why we’re making them.”
This quote is from a healthcare administrator lamenting the tension between his department and his physicians. Several colleagues of mine and I conducted 25 administrative interviews. As a professional listener who specializes in physician and healthcare executive coaching, it was enlightening to get their perspective.
Let’s take some time to hear what some of them had to say:
“Sometimes I think physicians have a baseline expectation of business as usual, but these days things simply aren’t usual. We are facing unprecedented circumstances. (COVID, economics, etc.)”
“There is a need for educational programs to inform physicians about the rational for administrative decisions. Additionally, it is important to provide the subsequent bandwidth for them to consume this information. Don’t just dump it in an email or require another class, and make sure there are ways the physicians can provide feedback.”
“It boils down to top leadership. They must provide the bandwidth and cultural environment that allows for difficult conversations. Also, leadership must relinquish control, to some degree, and allow direct communication and decision making between business administrators and physicians. Top leaders must abate the fear that’s blocking up energy, communication, and decision-making flows beneath them.”
“There are times that physicians don’t appreciate legal constraints.”
“Physicians often don’t have an understanding of why we make the decisions we do. They don’t understand the consequences of accessing capital, the nuance of HR decisions, and so on. Sometimes, they take the steps we take personally, as if it were against them. Sometimes, they conclude that the decisions we make aren’t fair, but they don’t understand the severity of the underlying principles of the issues.”
“Even some leaders (physician leaders, administrators, etc.) don’t understand the nuances of finance, administration, incentive plans, process and procedure structures, and so on. If the leaders don’t understand, you can’t expect the people further down the chain to understand.”
“The real bottleneck is between business mangers and top leadership of clinical departments. Often, business administrators don’t communicate essential information because they don’t have the bandwidth. More often, however, they don’t bring up issues because they’re afraid. Administrators feel that they must pass important information through the chairperson of the department, and so do the physician leaders. This is the bottleneck. Much of the energy backs up here. Many important issues die here.”
Click here to read what Katherine J. Igoe writes about empowering physicians with financial literacy. #physiciancoaching