Engage docs in business planning

by Kenneth H. Cohn I felt honored to be asked to speak on mission-, vision-, and values-based business planning to approximately 100 physicians and allied healthcare professionals earlier this month. I summarized an article I had written in response to a chief operating officer who dismissed a practicing physician with an idea of how to shorten the time from presentation to diagnosis for patients with a prostate mass. "Fine, now write me a business plan," the COO told the physician. The physician did just that. Moreover, the business plan I helped him write became the blueprint for a multidisciplinary cancer center (Cohn KH, Schwartz RW. "Business plan writing for physicians." Am J Surg 2002;184(2):114-120). With that in mind, I gave the audience of physicians and healthcare professionals four principal reasons to write a business plan: To obtain funding for a new idea To systematically analyze risks and alternatives To showcase your accomplishments and knowledge To maintain organizational health The last one comes from a book written by Patrick Lencioni, entitled "The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else In Business." Lencioni wrote that organizational health is the key competitive differentiator and centers on four principal activities: Building a cohesive team Creating clarity Over-communicating Reinforcing lessons learned The tie-in with healthcare is these activities are necessary for building a culture of collaboration from the...
Source: hospital impact - Category: Health Managers Authors: Source Type: blogs