Physician Coaching

My mission For Physicians and Health-Care Leaders:

My mission for Physicians who are seeking to renew a sense of purpose and vision is to help them to make the major shifts in their professional or personal life that can lead them to careers that use more of their true gifts and talents.

Mission for Corporate Health Leaders who are happy with their current career focus is to help you improve personal, individual, and corporate performance through understanding of yourself and others so that you may lead more effectively; increasing productivity and profitability. I assist you in more skillfully navigating your current position and in designing a trajectory toward your next big move.

Mission for CEOs and Senior Staff: To increase profitability and prosperity within the corporate culture to enable better lives for all involved. I show companies how they can improve profitability using best practices and involving their most precious asset - their employees.

The truth is that the most effective leaders know and understand their strengths and weaknesses. They know their effect upon others. They understand how to motivate and communicate with people who have very different styles than they do. Why invent the wheel or have to learn everything by experience? I can teach you a systematic approach to dealing with people that can enhance your personal and professional effectiveness.

Physicians: EI Application

We want to help physicians enjoy successful practices. The goals of our programs are to alleviate physician stress, increase patient compliance, improve patient-physician satisfaction, and reduce the risk of medical malpractice.

Reducing Medical Malpractice: What the research suggests

Problem: What causes a patient to file a malpractice claim? Surprisingly, a number of studies indicate that quality of care, medical negligence, and poor chart documentation are often not the motivating factors in patient lawsuits. What seems to be a more likely occurrence is that patients who experience unexpected outcomes are more likely to sue if they also perceive the physician “was not caring and compassionate.”

Research: In the last few years, a number of innovative research studies have analyzed the transcripts of patient depositions and physician-patient communications. These studies have found that from a patient’s perspective, a breakdown in communication between the patient/family and physician is a major risk factor contributing to malpractice claims. A surefire recipe for litigation seems to be an unexpected outcome combined with what the patient perceives as poor communications with the physician.
In one study, 71% of the patients cited “a perceived lack of caring” by their physicians as primary motivating factor in initiating a law suit. Almost a third of these patients who brought suits perceived that they had been “deserted” by their physicians.

Specialty Groups: The research on patient-physician communications has evolved to suggest that there may be differences among specialty group’s communication patterns that prompt law suits. In one study, surgeons who used a “dominating” voice tone were more likely to be sued than those surgeons who used a “less dominating tone.” Research with obstetricians indicates that practitioners who are perceived as “unavailable, rushed, unconcerned, and poor communicators” are more at risk for lawsuits. In contrast, another study indicates, primary care physicians who educated their patients about what to expect, asked questions about the patient’s problems, and shared some humor were less likely to be sued

Proposed Solutions: Imago Dei Executive Coaching provides focused and brief training seminars and/or individualized coaching sessions in order to alert physicians to what patients perceive as “high risk” interactions and/or “poor communications” that trigger lawsuits. These group seminars and individualized coaching sessions are designed to address problematic communication patterns unique to specialty groups and offer very specific recommendations to providers. Physicians attuned to these “high risk” interactions may not only be enhancing patient communication and satisfaction rates but significantly reducing their liability risk.

Our three-level intervention programs are targeted to specific problems areas that physicians experience.

(1) Stress Management Programs
Problems:
• Rising malpractice costs, fear of losing money, job security, intrusion of third parties in patient decision-making have all accelerated physician stress.
• Physicians work on average 60-65 hours a week; 38% work 80 or more hours.
• Reports suggest, “half of all physicians regret choosing medicine as a career.”

Solutions:
• Our series of innovative stress reduction programs are based on current research and our extensive work with physicians, medical students, and residents.
• In one of these sessions, the physician’s spouse or significant other may attend. Two people supporting each other to reduce stress can have significant results.
• The goal of these seminars is to have the physicians identify very specific strategies that may readily be applied to their professional practice and personal life.
• The program may include a pre- and post-assessment of stress and e-mail booster sessions to support the stress-reduction efforts..


(2) Specialty Based- Physician-Patient Communications Seminars
Problems:
• Breakdown in communications may impact patient compliance to treatment as well as patient satisfaction level, and increase the risk of medical malpractice.
• Research extols and physicians intuitively know the healing power of strong physician-patient communication.

Solutions:
• Small group seminars are offered to physician specialty groups.
• Research suggests there may be differences among specialty groups that impact physician-patient communication.
• Utilizing very specific simulations and possibly standardized patients, our seminars alert and immunize physicians to possible breaks in patient communications and strategies for improvement.
• Creation of self-directed action plans will continue to assist the physician to enhance patient communication after the seminar.
• The program may include group and individual coaching sessions and e-mail booster sessions to support the communication strategies.

(3) Coaching-“High risk practices” multiple malpractice claims
Problems:
• Because of the specialty practice, unexpected patient outcomes, breakdowns in communication, system problems, heroic tendencies, or excessive hubris the physician may experience multiple malpractice claims.

Solutions: Customized and individual assessments that my include:
• Review of malpractice claims to possibly identify trends or patterns.
• Examination of office procedures to insure system cooperation.
• Observation and analysis of patient interactions.
• Identification of high-risk behaviors that may trigger lawsuits and remediation strategies to eliminate these high-risk behaviors.
• Experiential learning through facilitated interaction with simulated patients.
• Development of short and long term self-directed learning plans to support and reinforce new behaviors.
• Reassessment at predetermined points to evaluate progress -- may involve unannounced standardized patient visits if the physician agrees.