Finding a Physician Champion

Among physicians, some self-identify as being interested in spiritual matters. Look for people who work with missions and relief. Physicians who are gone on long mission trips will not likely have the energy or time to devote to being the physician champion, but they often have passion and a charitable heart. They can be important contributors to this ministry. Watch the medical staff leaders, especially the ones who offer prayer or reflection as a part of their leadership. As they cycle off of their leadership roles, they might be interested in this aspect of ministry, and they will have a rich network of contacts that includes other staff physicians. However, they may also bring social baggage to the role from previous staff disciplinary actions or political conflicts. Ideally, the physician champion should be approachable by sinner and saint alike. You may find candidates among the academic physicians who train medical students and residents. Just as you would evaluate a medical staff leader, look for the hallmarks of spirituality integrated into their practice and their teaching. Look for joy expressed in the practice of medicine, for good relationships with the nursing staff, good reports from patients, and a balanced attitude toward charity care. That balance is struck between two extremes: 1) Physicians who are totally committed to charity care will have trouble relating to physicians who refuse charity patients and focus on the bottom line. 2) Physicians who resist charity care will require a greater investment in spiritual formation before they can become effective as a physician champion.

What have been some of the characteristics of physicians that have been influential in your professional life?

Finding a Physician Champion

Where will you find a physician champion? Begin with the active medical staff. Physicians will not relate as well to a retired physician champion, or to one coming from outside the medical staff. So, focus on the active physicians. Effectiveness increases the more that the physician champion is regarded as “one of us”.

Have you experienced "outside" physicians that have been effective championing initiatives on the medical staff? How did they do it? What made them effective?

Physician Champion Skills

The physician champion needs organizational skills to coordinate programs, create presentations and manage a database. I use an Excel™ spreadsheet to keep track of activities. A physician champion needs leadership skills. I believe that the menu of leadership styles that physicians commonly practice are inadequate for this role but a physician champion can learn a servant leadership style that is very effective.

What leadership characteristics appeal to you in your professional life?

Selecting a Physician Champion

Does a candidate profess faith? This is a critical question in a faith-based institution, and a valuable question in a private or public institution. Does that person appear to live by principles of faith? The confluence of these two responses is another critical integrity test. Of course, everyone makes mistakes, but the candidate’s “compass heading” is the issue. Is the candidate’s life going in the right direction? Is there evidence that this person is attempting to be faithful? Are his or her decisions consistent with scriptural teaching? Selecting the wrong champion at this point could destroy the effectiveness of any physician champion within an institution for several years, while other physicians forget the bad experiences. Discernment is critical. Plan to pray several times one-on-one with your candidate, especially during times of discernment and particularly with this decision in mind. Stay open to God’s direction. Clarity will come.

What are your thoughts on expressions of faith in a faith-based hospital?

Faith-Based vs. Other Hospitals

Faith-based, private and public hospitals share an interplay of personal and institutional purposes, but there are some significant differences. They become apparent when you try to help physicians align on the hospital mission. Private and public institutions can publicly appeal to humanitarian and financial motives in their medical staff, but generally use faith-centered motivations in private conversations. In faith-based hospitals, the physician champion can emphasize publicly faith-centered motives for physicians, and secondarily appropriate humanitarian and financial motives. The strength of the faith dimension can be powerful, especially when it is visible in the institution.

How do hospitals that are not faith-based express spirituality on the medical staff?

Crisis as Opportunity

When I served in the role of physician champion, I heard the laments. Downsizing began to dismantle cooperation and detracted from a healthy sense of meaning and purpose. Nevertheless, downsizing was an excellent opportunity for the physician champion to listen, help individual physicians find context, re-establish meaning and renew dialogue with administrators. The result is that institutional values are revitalized.

What complaints do you hear? How can you use them to renew a sense of purpose?

Cost of Mission and Values Breaches

When physicians perceive lapses in our adherence to the mission, vision and values, they become angry or discouraged. This is especially so when lapses occur at a high level. A few years ago our hospital downsized, for example. The physicians who were employed by the hospital retained their jobs but experienced significant staff cutbacks. A number of them lamented the loss of good people, good workers and good friends. Our hospital emphasizes core values and among those values are integrity and reverence for people. These physicians had trouble reconciling the labor cuts with our stated values. These physicians felt that honest employees who had given their best deserved an institution that took care of its loyal employees. They questioned whether the hospital revered employees by suddenly marching them off of their work station and discharging them. Whether their perceptions were accurate or not, the result was that many of these physicians became discouraged, disillusioned, and lost morale. They resented the administrative moves.

What strategies do you use to reduce discord between physicians and administrators?