A practicing surgeon dissects issues in physician-hospital relations

The author presumes that he do not need to write about the rationale for improving physician relations. Although, publicly, healthcare leaders tell him that they serve at the pleasure of the board, privately, they tell him that they serve at the pleasure of the medical staff as well. His passion for physician-hospital relations stems from what he has witnessed: Clinical and financial outcomes can improve when healthcare administrators, physicians, nurses, and board members learn to work more interdependently. Care coordination is also enhanced, and the practice environment becomes one in which people reconnect with the values that attracted them to healthcare in the first place. In this column, he introduce himself, his observations, and some issues between physicians and administrators that cause conflicts. He had learned that physicians, himself included, lack formal training in communication, negotiation, and conflict resolution. Interpersonal conflict is inevitable in times of rapid, disruptive change, which is often present in healthcare.