Strong physician engagement positively impacts a host of CMO priorities including: provider retention, patient experience, care quality, and organizational costs. However, resource constraints make it increasingly difficult for leaders to turn the dial on engagement—especially across both employed and independent physician groups.

This report provides strategic guidance on how to scope your physician engagement strategy and 14 best practices to maximize the return on your efforts.

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In a perfect world, you would focus your engagement efforts equally on all physicians, but that often isn’t feasible. To make a meaningful impact on physician engagement despite limited time and resources, it’s critical to scope your engagement ambition to match the resources you have.

Three steps to prioritize your physician engagement efforts

1. Take an honest assessment of the resources you can dedicate to physician engagement.
2. Identify the high-priority physicians on which to focus your efforts.
3. Pursue a limited number of practices that have an outsized impact on physician engagement.

Your data-driven road map for physician engagement

To identify high-impact practices, we used the Advisory Board's Physician Engagement Survey national database to pinpoint the drivers that have the greatest impact on physician engagement.

Download our research report to see 14 best practices you can use drive physician engagement across each of the six high-impact drivers.

14 best practices for improving physician engagement

Introduction: Safeguarding your Most Precious Asset (p. 7)
Scope your engagement ambition to your available time and resources.

Related Resources:

• Take Stock of Your Available Engagement Resources
• Statistically Significant Engagement Drivers by Specialty
• Statistically Significant Alignment Drivers by Specialty

Section 1: Communicate Executive Action through Convenient, Curated Channels (p. 25)
Proactively share information with physicians and maximize the impact of email communication.

• Practice 1: Structured Leader Rounding (p. 28)
• Practice 2: Executive-Led Virtual Brownbags (p. 32)
• Practice 3: Physician Communication Hierarchy (p. 37)

Related Resources:

• Spartanburg’s Standard Rounding Questions
• CHA’s Virtual Brownbag Topic Calendar
• Email 101: How to Get Physicians to Click

Section 2: Translate Market Forces into Physician Terms (p. 43)
Increase physicians’ visibility into the market forces impacting executive decisions.

• Practice 4: Physician Market Intensive (p. 46)

Related Resource: Physician Market Intensive Onsite Description

Section 3: Hardwire Physician Involvement in Strategic Decisions (p. 49)
Bring physicians and key decision makers together in forums dedicated to soliciting strategic input early in the decision-making process.

• Practice 5: CEO Cabinet (p.51)
• Practice 6: Physician Think Tanks (p. 56)

Section 4: Solicit Actionable Input About Physician Irritants (p. 63)
Collect timely, specific input from physicians about their top-of-mind concerns.

• Practice 7: Leader-Driven Solution Sourcing (p. 65)
• Practice 8: Simplified Scenario Planning (p. 71)
• Practice 9: One-Hour Input Escalation (p. 75)

Related Resources:

• 10 Tips for Troubleshooting Focus Group Pitfalls
• Fairview Health Services’ Daily Huddle Overview
• Fairview Health Services’ Daily Huddle Template

Section 5: Embed Meaningful Recognition into Workflow (p. 79)
Recognize physicians in the moment for their professional accomplishments.

• Practice 10: Challenge Coins (p. 81)
• Practice 11: Patient-Driven Recognition (p. 86)
• Practice 12: Kudos Button (p. 89)

Related Resource: Swedish Covenant Hospital’s Recognition Letter Template

Section 6: Create “Bite-Sized” Leadership Opportunities (p. 95)
Create feasible opportunities for physician leadership that don’t require an outsized time commitment.

• Practice 13: Physician Sounding Board (p. 98)
• Practice 14: Peer-Executive Liaisons (p. 103)