Coaching in Health Care: The Patient-Physician Relationship and the Role of the Physician Leader

Additional proposals discussed to enhance physician-physician integration dealt with topics such as: improving monthly hospital physician meeting attendance, raising patient satisfaction scores and enhancing new hospital physician orientation and re-orientation program. At the conclusion of this three month coaching program, the participants were writing policy to deal with these additional proposals.

Objective II: Develop Physician Leadership Architecture. As a direct result of the coaching program, a policy was written to build a hospital and community awareness program for the hospital physician team, which served to focus attention on the hospital physician team members. Spotlighting the qualifications and accomplishments of the hospital physicians in the weekly hospital newsletter read by the staff, patients and community is one example of calling attention to their leadership role in the medical center. Additionally, one can reasonably assume the written policies and proposals originating from the coaching program would exhibit the hospital physician team as an exemplary program in the hospital; thus, members of the team became physician leader role-models. Certainly the hospital physicians felt empowered due to the program—as evidenced by comments such as, “I am now proud to be a member of this team.” Physicians are quick adaptors at applying leadership skills to serve as an excellent framework to develop physician leaders.