Professional Interactions – Best Practices Series
The Roadmap from Physician Employee to Partner
By Fred Corbus
This article first appeared in Round-up Magazine, official publication of the Maricopa County Medical Society.
You and your small group of associates (all of whom are partners) have taken the practice to the point where it has become established and recognized for clinical excellence.
Somehow, before, during, and after each day's exhausting clinical load you and your associates devoted the necessary time and energy to build the practice: developing relationships with referring physicians, sitting on important committees and boards, implementing front and back office systems, recruiting key administrative people, negotiating key contracts, and the list goes on. In short, the practice now lays claim to a share of the market.
You now realize that the remaining prerequisite for increased market share and practice vitality is the successful retention and recruitment of doctors. For those people who are already in the group but are not presently partners, one of your best retention strategies is to offer partnership. However, you do not want to compromise any standards. You also know that, when recruiting a physician you really want, one of the best ways of making the sale is to offer partnership. But once again, you would like to be clear about your expectations and what it takes to become a partner. Extending partnership to the wrong doctor makes your life miserable.
CASE STUDY
One of the groups I have worked with over the years (presently about nine physicians) practices a highly specialized sub-specialty. This practice was originally started by two physicians but quickly grew to six physicians. Physicians 3 through 6 were all offered an employment contract with a partnership track of two years. Fortunately, each of these doctors also exhibited the same clinical and non-clinical excellence, work ethic, and practice values. Because of the critical mass of precedence, physicians 7 and 8 were also offered a partnership track of two years during their recruiting interviews. You guessed it! Although these two physicians did not reflect the same clinical excellence or work ethic, two years later they slipped into partnership.
What happened?
- Existing partners assumed that they could successfully recruit additional potential partners in their own image without thinking about and spelling out specific expectations.
- The physicians being recruited assumed that the practice culture they were interested in was a good fit with their image of themselves.
The bottom line is simply this: the quality and quantity of providers for any practice creates the single most important asset. Beyond pure immediate compensation, the offer of partnership is the most attractive retention and recruiting strategy available. But this offer must be wrapped around a clear set of expectations.
Becoming a partner comes with expectations of:
- Financial and non-financial rewards and
- Increased clinical and non-clinical responsibilities
Although I use a variety of “models” when facilitating a group through the design of its own “employee-to-partner expectations” documents, I have combined the models into a composite example, selecting a few items for your reference.
ROADMAP FROM PHYSICIAN EMPLOYEE TO PARTNER
Statement of Overall Criteria for Partnership
The physician employee:
- Has been practicing with the group for two or more years.
- Is perceived by partners as manifesting group practice norms (e.g., hard working, working well in a group setting).
- Is perceived by partners as loved by the patients.
- Consistently receives high evaluations on the formal internal practice Provider Reviews!
- Is board certified.
- Shows potential and interest in partnership responsibilities.
My suggestion is that you take the subject of defining benefits and expectations for becoming a partner very seriously. You already have a stressful life. You do not need to find yourself in partnership with someone you will resent and/or would rather not be around.
- Do a little lobbying with all of your present partners regarding the need to create an employee-to-partner transition document. Hand everyone a copy of this article and personally explain the value.
- Create a meeting with all partners present; refer to the above roadmap/template to define your own line items and fill in the blanks.
- Make sure everyone refers to the document when reflecting upon his/her own performance or when extending the possibility of partnership during any recruiting discussion.
Lots of Luck!
If you have any questions about this article, please feel free to give me a call.
The development of documents such as these is an investment of time, requiring meetings where participants listen and understand. Gaining a joyful environment within which to practice medicine makes it all worthwhile!
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