Medical Staff Development

Integrating physicians into the mission of a hospital is the premier challenge in medical staff development. True integration involves more than the pledge-to-the-flag lip service that often substitutes for real commitment. True integration requires an alignment of the physician's passions. I think faith-based hospitals have an excellent opportunity here since their mission can resonate with physicians' own passions at a very deep level. It is so easy even in a faith based hospital to swing toward the business model of medicine. Our diversity provides further pressure away from faith-inspired medical healing. I favor dusting off those mission statements, having some thoughtful dialogue about what they really mean and breaking through some of the habits of the business model to achieve extraordinary physician integration.