CMO Notes

Matthew Miller, MD
Chief Medical Officer, WCHN

Let’s talk about the Medical Staff Satisfaction Survey that many of you participated in this winter. In a new spirit of brevity in our communications, I’ll hit the highlights (and lowlights) as succinctly and honestly as possible.

450 of you responded (30%) and over half of those responding took the time to give us written commentary as well. Thank you all.

What are we doing well?

• You gave high marks for the organization’s commitment to quality of care.
• You were positive about virtually all the clinical and staff support services: Lab, pathology and radiology (including timeliness of results), ED, hospitalists, surgical services, medical records and the medical staff office.
• Even parking got pretty good scores.

What are we NOT doing so well?

• Our partnership: You were critical of the professional relationship between the Medical Staff and Senior Leadership. You directed specific comments at how you are treated as business partners, how we respond to your ideas and suggestions, how you are included in decisions that affect you and how you influence strategic decisions. More than a few of you mentioned the lack of transparency in how and why decisions are made.
• Respect and Recognition: You cited shortcomings in recognizing you for excellence, in efforts to retain you, and in how we handle conflict.
• Communication: You formed two issues here—How well we communicate with you in general (55% positive) and the value of DOC-Line, this newsletter (35%). You also called for more face to face communications.
• Information Technology: Despite having pretty high marks for providing the technology you need to deliver care, positive scores for IT in general were only 46%.

So…..we heard you and we are committed to addressing all four these areas and your many comments and observations in a sustainable way. Each area will receive focused attention and each will need your formal input. We can’t possibly solve these challenges without your help so expect to hear from us on how we can tap into your ideas and opinions.

As far as this newsletter is concerned, many of you liked it, but some said “too long, too infrequent, or too hospital centric”. Some said “what newsletter?”

We’ll keep DOC-Line as one of many vehicles for communication, but we’ll make it pithier, more frequent and more relevant to many of you whose practice is strictly ambulatory.

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