Five Lessons Learned in 10 years of experience:
- Invest in doing it right
- Culture matters
- Leaders need to lead
- Create a culture of psychological safety
- Sustain new habits with group coaching from certified coaches with proven experience
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to recognize the extraordinary stress today’s practicing physicians are experiencing. They find themselves seeing more patients in less time, spending more and more time doing non-clinical work to meet the ever-increasing and, at times, capricious regulatory environment, and support staff shortages. They are spending too little time with their families, eating poorly, and not getting enough exercise and sleep.
We are in a crisis and it is understandable that we want to fix it and fix it FAST. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could send our physicians to a 3-day course or have physician leaders get an MBA or similar credential to add to their MD, or have them take an assortment of video courses? Most of our clients have tried one or all of these “fast fixes” before they call us.
The bad news is the crisis we are facing can’t be fixed quickly and attempts to do so universally fail. Medical cultures are extraordinarily deeply entrenched and vary significantly. Resistance to change is profound and underappreciated or ignored. Change is treated as a “skill” challenge instead of a “will” challenge that it is.
The good news is that CPL has seen really impressive results, including improved
- hours for physician coverage, with a 92% physician buy-in for change
- physician engagement and satisfaction scores going from 35% to 62% in the first two years
- increased independent care and readmission rate during a Palliative Care rollout that created a cost savings of 15M in the first two years.
The following graphic illustrates a case study of CPL working with senior operational and clinical leaders to identify a Physician Leadership Strategy to strengthen their organization’s physician engagement and involvement in critical system initiatives, including the development of Clinical Institutes and Value Improvement Projects. The results are really encouraging.
Moreover, CPL’s core programs have had a high success rate, with 97% of physician and clinician participants saying that they would highly recommend these programs to their colleagues.
Committing to meaningful change requires patience and determination from the top down. It’s not for the weak-hearted CEO. It requires a multi-year commitment and a highly visible sponsorship from the entire c-suite.
The good news is there is a methodology that works. The even better news is that the cost of doing so is significantly lower than the cost of replacing just a few burned-out Physicians.
If you are looking for ways to create significant results in your organization with the committed support of CPL, reach out to us today.