Talent management and physician leadership training is essential for preparing tomorrow's physician leaders.

Talent management and leadership development is becoming a necessity for health care organizations. These leaders will be needed to manage the change in the delivery of health care and payment systems. Appointment of clinically skilled physicians as leaders without specific training in the areas described in our program could lead to failure. A comprehensive program such as the one described is also needed for succession planning and retaining high-potential individuals in an era of shortage of surgeons.

Perspective: Educating physicians to lead hospitals.

The percentage of hospitals that are physician led has been steadily declining and now stands at or near an all-time low. What price do the health care system and the people it serves pay for this decline in physician leadership? What might health care look like if medical educators devoted more time and attention to developing future physicians as organizational leaders? What changes would medical schools need to make to prepare medical students to play such a role? What advantages might accrue for patients, communities, and physicians themselves if more hospitals were physician led? Because hospitals are a vital resource in caring for the sick, promoting health, and addressing the challenges facing the U.S. health care system, it is now more important than ever before to explore how medical education can complement its traditional focus on the molecular, cellular, and organismal levels of health and disease with insight into the organizational dimensions of patient care. The authors believe the time is ripe to rethink medical education's role in preparing tomorrow's physicians as leaders.

Critical care workforce: a policy perspective.

BACKGROUND: Workforce studies may be disconnected from the policies that affect supply and demand for health professionals. Sporadic review of the physician workforce in the last century has led to wide swings in perception about its adequacy. However, workforce research has influenced federal policy as well as the policies of institutions responsible for training and regulation of physicians. This discussion is intended to address workforce issues in the context of public policy at the federal level. It is also intended to serve as a starting point for new approaches to shaping workforce policy. DISCUSSION: The supply of and demand for physicians and other health professionals are affected by a number of factors that may or may not be under the control of policymakers and health professionals themselves. Productivity, practice patterns, the aging of the workforce and patients, and other major determinants are only minimally affected by most government policy. Despite several attempts throughout the 1980s and 1990s, demand for health care has been particularly difficult to control for policymakers. In contrast to the United States, most developed nations are extensively involved in the planning of the healthcare workforce, including the specialty mix, the number of physicians, and the number of other health professionals. CONCLUSION: There are many barriers to successful workforce policy. Successful public policy change often involves multiple stakeholders, in and out of government. The task before those concerned about workforce issues is to educate policymakers about how changes in the physician workforce will affect cost, access, and quality, and to impress upon them that serious efforts to improve quality of care and reduce costs will not be effective unless qualified physicians are there to provide that care.

Retaining medical directors in community health centers. The importance of administrative relationships.

Physician retention has become a critical issue for maintaining the success of today's health care organizations. With many external factors--increasing malpractice premiums, lower reimbursement rates, and managed care controls--driving physicians out of the practice, it is imperative to understand how the internal functions of the organization can help maintain satisfaction in the workplace and prevent physicians from leaving (Reece, 2000; Taylor, 2002). This is especially important in Community and Migrant Health Centers (C/MHCs), federally supported health clinics providing care to low-income and uninsured patients in medically underserved communities and neighborhoods. In this study, we examine the medical directors' roles and responsibilities, their relationships with the C/MHC administrators, and whether these impact satisfaction and, ultimately retention in the centers.

Finding top talent.

Two experts from a health care consulting/physician recruiting company provide a step-by-step approach to recruiting a medical director.