‘Magnet’ to attract doctors
The Regina Qu’Appelle Health Region (RQHR) is launching a unique project so it becomes a “magnet organization” that attracts and keeps physicians.
The Enhancing Physician Engagement project aims to strengthen relationships between doctors and administrators by helping both groups understand each other and keep each other accountable.
The project follows a survey the region did in late 2011 to gauge physician engagement. The survey indicated areas in which doctors were highly dissatisfied.
Dr. Glen Roberts, the region’s executive director of Practitioner Staff Affairs, noted there were strong scores on a practice level of engagement.
“The best question that indicates that was, ‘Do you have a close colleague at work?’ and our physicians said en masse, ‘Yes, I do.’ ”
However, physicians gave the region low marks for trust and respect. “That’s probably the most important lesson — that we strengthen the relationship and that we make sure that we involve our physicians in decisionmaking,” Roberts said.
The first step is underway as the region shares the results of three reports it commissioned. According to the research, doctors and administrators have different “mental models.”
“When we put our administrators and our physicians in a room and have a meeting, it’s not uncommon that they talk and they don’t understand each other,” Roberts said. “Their upbringings, their education, their values are quite a bit different and as they talk they may be even using the same words and not understand what the other person is speaking about.”
Typically, doctors attend physician-oriented leadership training. However, the research argues physicians and administrators train together to ensure a collaborative leadership approach.
The research papers, the first of their kind in the province, will provide the basis for engagement sessions to develop the principles and framework for the region’s future relationship with its physicians.
“This project is all about engaging physicians and administrators together to actually create a stronger and better work environment,” Roberts said. “If, in fact, the relationships aren’t strong, if you have meetings and you don’t understand each other, if you aren’t involved in decision-making and you feel that people just tell you what to do, that’s not a recipe for a strong organization or relationship.”
The project is designed to help the organization figure out how to engage physicians and then use that approach to develop a physician compact — a give-and-get agreement — between doctors and administration.
“If we don’t reach our wait time targets, then the region gets mad at surgeons and the surgeons say, ‘I don’t know why you’re getting mad at me, you took away half of my OR time four months ago,’ ” Roberts said. “This is about holding each other accountable collectively.”
Dr. Siva Karunakaran, vice-president of the RQHR Regional Medical Association, is pleased the region is launching the initiative.
“The health-care environment is always changing and we want to be part of the change — we want to be at the front and centre of change,” Karunakaran said. “We are hopeful. We think it’s going in the right direction, but a lot of work needs to be done.”
Roberts believes the changes will create a great workplace. “That’s exactly what the region wants to be known as,” he said. “When we’re not only a great place to work, but we’re perceived to be a great place to work, you don’t need to recruit. People come here because you’re a magnet organization.”