Getting Physicians to Attend Meetings

Encouraging Physician Attendance at Monthly Management Meetings

By now everyone should know the benefits that can be derived from holding monthly management meetings. But how do you get physicians to attend these meetings? Practices vary on this one. Good physician leadership at the top usual solves the problem as does paying physicians a stipend to attend meetings (which I think is an utterly stupid idea since physicians should know how important meetings are to the future success of the medical practice).

However, if you want to pay physicians for attendance, here is a great idea that came across a physician lists that I thought you might be interested in:

As part of their compensation package, the physician’s should vote on a certain dollar amount or percentage of salary that is paid to them as “corporate directors” or “practice leaders” or whatever you choose to call it. Only those members of the group who maintain 90% attendance (or whatever percentage seems appropriate to your group) at the corporate meetings are eligible to share in this administrative compensation for the year. If at any time during the year, they fall below 90%, that portion of their paycheck is deducted and they have no chance of recovering the lost salary. If they start coming back to meetings and get their percentage back up above 90%, the director’s pay is reinstated, but they get no backpay for the amount they forfeited. The forfeited amounts can be re-allocated to the “good do-bee” doctors at bonus time or it can be added to the employee bonus pool. The key is that the forfeiting doctor gets no shot at getting it back. If possible, you should draft this as a written policy when approved by your group and mail it to the doctor’s home. That way, the spouse is made aware that slacking off from corporate meetings means a pay cut.

The psychology of this works if the dollar amount is significant enough to make a dent in their monthly paycheck. It is a valid tactic because lack of leadership will eventually erode everyone’s financial security.