Do your physicians care about meetings?
Try this advice to boost their attendance
By Stephen W. Earnhart, MS
President and CEO
Earnhart and Associates
Dallas
Is it just me, or does it take more to motivate our physician users today? I know, it's not you, doctor, it's the other one, but still . . .
At what level of participation are your surgeons interacting in your center? Is it with the same intensity they once had, or have you noticed it slipping? Is the passion gone, or are we just not attentive to their needs?
I get to meet many people from all over the United States in my travels. Most of what I do is talk to people (listen, actually), and most of those individuals are surgeons. What I'm hearing that it is not so much apathy as the physicians' perception of their time being wasted. Once again, I know we all think we are unique, but I keep seeing and hearing the same things everywhere.
In the past, when you held a physician investor, a steering committee, or a just plain old physician meeting, most (but never all) of the surgeons would show up. You had to remind them, of course, but not more than two or three times. Feeding them was a given, and the time had to be early morning (ugh!) or late afternoon. But they came! With more hospitals expanding their role in the freestanding ambulatory surgery center (ASC) market (not-for-profit to for-profit with MD investors), the need for physician input is greater now than it has ever been. The absolute success of a hospital conversion or ASC development program is dependent upon the physician user input.
I'm seeing eroding profit margins in some for-profit centers because the physicians are not involved in critical decision-making processes. Worse yet, there are some great ASCs out there that are being bypassed because physician users/ investors/members don't feel they have an identity with it.
That's the challenge. If you are overwhelmed with physician interest and input, congratulations! E-mail me how you are doing it so we can share it with the group. But for the rest of us, we need to hunker down and do something about it.
Here's what physicians say
I do have some insight based upon my discussions. First, the apathy is not deliberate in most cases. Many of the physicians are scrambling to offset declining revenue from their professional fee reimbursement. Second, they don't see results of their input from other meetings in the past. Makes sense. "You never listened to me in the past, so why should I go now?"
Another problem is the "meeting syndrome." This is indigenous to our hospital friends. You guys have meetings to discuss other meetings! Think about it from the physicians' standpoint. You make your living and get paid by going to these meetings and functions, for the most part. The surgeons get nothing for it and often see it as an inconvenience. Most of the physicians say they go to some of the meetings because they don't want you, the administrator, to look bad or because they are afraid the hospital or board will change something in their absence that will make their lives more difficult.
Others complain that these meetings never have agendas, and their time is wasted. Never have a meeting without an agenda - nothing gets done! Another complaint is that too much time is spent talking about the kids or pets or vacation plans, etc. The surgeons then feel an obligation to nod and bob their heads like they have an interest in these issues during a meeting. Yet another complaint is that meetings seem to occur, regardless of any issues to discuss. As if it just has to happen! Then, of course, there is the last group that says, "Meeting? What meeting? No one told me about a meeting." (Denial to the highest!)
7 tips for boosting attendance
Bottom line: Most meetings are a waste of time, valuable resources, and energy. If any of the above sound familiar, try some of these ideas.
1. Some meetings must occur. Issues such as quality improvement, infection control, and safety must be dealt with. The trick is to get people on these committees that will contribute and attend. If you have someone that has not attended the last three meetings, you're wasting his/her time and your energy trying to persuade them to attend No. 4. Cut your losses and ask them if they would rather have someone else replace them on the committee.
2. Change the name of meetings to caucuses. ("We're going to caucus next Monday about ambulatory payment classifications.") It might pique their interest.
3. Have an agenda and stick to it.
4. Start the meeting on time! I hate to tell you how many times I have started a staff meeting by myself for the first 10 minutes. Eventually people show up and get the hint. If nothing else, it makes them feel guilty. Guilt is OK. I'll take guilt over apathy.
5. Let everyone know the meeting will be short. Fifteen minutes should cover dissemination of any information you need to get out there.
Never let any meeting go longer than one hour. Everyone will hate you and think bad thoughts about you on the way home. Thirty minutes for any meeting in an ASC should do it.
6. Make your agenda interesting. Include agenda items such as, "Equipment Sterilization - Do we need it?" It will get their attention.
7. Promise your physicians that agenda items needing their input will be handled first and they should not be required for more than 15 minutes. Then stick with it! Again, remem -ber that they don't get paid for attending these meetings. Don't think that while you have them you can ask them every question you've been wanting answered for the past 12 months. If you try to do that, you'll lose them for another 12 months.
But I could be wrong about all this. Let's schedule a meeting and discuss it in more detail . . .
(Editor's note: Earnhart can be reached at Earnhart and Associates, 5905 Tree Shadow Place, Suite 1200, Dallas, TX 75252. E-mail: [email protected]. World Wide Web: http://www.earnhart.com.)
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