Hospitals' New Physician Leaders: Doctors Wear Multiple Medical Hats

A new trend in hospitals is employing physicians in both administrative and clinical roles. A new generation of physicians are combining clinical care and executive leadership concurrently. There are more of these positions as hospitals and large health systems prepare for the implementation of health reform and recognize the need for greater alignment with physicians. Physician leaders are viewed as more important than ever to closing the divide between clinicians and the administration as they try to create accountable care organizations, reduce readmissions, improve care, and implement electronic medical records. Physicians playing an executive role feel they have more control of patient care and hospital regulations. They are working to improve quality in their every day clinical atmospheres; they feel they can trust initiatives more and have representation on the board. Also the trend has created new titles available to accommodate new administrative needs. The chief medical officer remains a common leadership position, but hospitals are creating positions such as chiefs of physician relations, integration, and medical informatics. These new positions incorporate some duties that until now physicians traditionally would have carried out as volunteers as part of the medical staff or various committees. Read the full article in American Medical News, or click here: http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2011/04/04/bisa0404.htm