Physician Satisfaction at WellStar Kennestone Hospital

Robert Jansen, M.D., VP of Medical Affairs

With the winter season well underway, the forthcoming warm weather and spring season are a welcome thought. Spring also brings us toward our annual Physician Satisfaction Survey and the opportunity for you, as a provider, to share your feedback. Our hope is that you will participate, encourage others to participate and use this opportunity to reflect on the progress we have made since the 2009 survey.

As part of WellStar Kennestone’s response to last year’s survey, all physicians received a copy of Engaging Physicians by Stephen C. Beeson, M.D. Dr. Beeson lists the stages of building partnerships based on his years of teaching and cultivating best practices. His book helps answer the question:

“How do leaders build a collaborative, cooperative relationship with physicians that earn physician loyalty and engage physicians to work toward a shared agenda?”

This is an important question to answer as it touches every team member at Kennestone. Every team member owns the overall goal of improving physician satisfaction.

Over the next several issues of the Medical Staff Newsletter we will illustrate how the stages in Dr. Beeson’s book align with Kennestone’s physician satisfaction plan which has been under development since last fall. The stages which will be covered include:

- Communicate organizational vision and goals
- Establish physician confidence and trust
- Training physicians
- Physician measurement and balanced scorecard
- Recognizing physicians

In this issue we will focus on the stage, “Communicate organizational vision and goals.” Kennestone has made tremendous efforts in this area. Some of the highlights include:

1. Kennestone has been working to create a partnership with physicians and leaders to approach important issues. The Strategic Issues Committee was developed to help accomplish this partnership and was divided into three groups: Ease of Practice lead by Tommy Redwood, M.D.; Patient Care lead by Steven Oweida, M.D.; and Relationship with Leadership lead by Chris Andersen, M.D. These groups were charged with discovering target areas within each of their groups, creating a plan and working to accomplish the goals. Through the efforts of each team’s focused communication, a clear direction is being created.

2. New provider orientation kicked off in January. The purpose of this half-day meeting is to provide clear communication to our new providers while offering the necessary tools for a successful on-boarding process.

3. Physician rounding was established as a connection between physician and hospital leaders. The goal of management is to regularly round on physicians, create a list of opportunities and follow up with the physicians on actions taken.

4.The monthly Medical Staff Newsletter started its circulation. This newsletter was created in response to the physician survey in order to provide regular updates and communication.

5. Physician town halls started in December 2009. These meetings were created to keep all physicians up-to-date on information related to WellStar Health System and WellStar Kennestone Hospital. In addition, the town halls provide opportunities to speak with myself, Candice Saunders and other leaders.

In conclusion, our efforts continue to align with the strategy outlined in Engaging Physicians. This is not to say the book holds all of the answers to creating an engaged medical staff but provides insight into best practices which have proven effective. I look forward to sharing updates in upcoming issues regarding our efforts to improve the overall satisfaction of our medical staff team. I ask that you, as a member of our medical staff, be a part of the initiative to increase the level of engagement and satisfaction at WellStar Kennestone Hospital.