The Medical Staff Leader’s Practical Guide: Survival Tips for Navigating Your Leadership Role

William K. Cors, MD, MMM, FAAPL

Physicians who accept or are assigned leadership positions are often left on their own to develop leadership skills and educate themselves about their responsibilities as medical staff leaders. Just because a physician is a great clinician does not mean he or she is a great leader.

The challenges of being a successful medical staff leader are twofold: You must be well-versed in your role and responsibilities (i.e., peer review, credentialing, medical staff bylaws), and you must inspire other medical staff members to follow the rules while continuing to deliver excellent patient care.

A well-trained medical staff leader is vital to the culture of a hospital’s medical staff and can save a hospital from the expense of lawsuits affiliated with negligent credentialing/peer review. The Medical Staff Leader’s Practical Guide: Survival Tips for Navigating Your Leadership Role offers you an affordable, time-saving solution to medical staff leadership training.

This book aims to teach physicians how to become great medical staff leaders and motivate other medical staff members on topics such as:

• AHP credentialing and supervision
• Reappointment challenges
• Physician-hospital competition
• Liability risks
• Medical staff disharmony and distrust

In this newly updated, 2019 edition, you'll also receive:

• Expanded chapters on peer review/OPPE/FPPE, advanced practice professionals, and physician employment
• New chapters on the medical staff executive committee as well as service lines and other medical staff models
• A clear description of the relationship between the medical staff office and the medical staff leader, including reporting structures
• Top 10 survival tips for medical staff leaders

Click here to access chapter previews.

Published: March 2019

Page count: 316
Dimensions: 8.5” X 11”
ISBN: 978-1-68308-889-9

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Where to Begin: Principles of Governance 
Chapter 2: Working With Medical Services Professionals and the Chief Medical Officer 
Chapter 3: All About Meetings 
Chapter 4: Overcoming Physician Apathy 
Chapter 5: How to Get Great Physicians and Leaders 
Chapter 6: The MEC, Departments, and Other Committees 
Chapter 7: Credentialing and Privileging: Principles and Practices 
Chapter 8: New Technology Privileges 
Chapter 9: Privilege Disputes and How to Resolve Them 
Chapter 10: Advanced Practice Professionals 
Chapter 11: Low-Volume and No-Volume Practitioners 
Chapter 12: The Late-Career Physician 
Chapter 13: Proctoring (FPPE) 
Chapter 14: Peer Review (OPPE) 
Chapter 15: Managing Poor Performance 
Chapter 16: Corrective Action: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly 
Chapter 17: Giving and Getting References 
Chapter 18: EMTALA and ED Coverage 
Chapter 19: Conflicts of Interest 
Chapter 20: Economic Credentialing 
Chapter 21: Service Lines and Other New Models 
Chapter 22: Alignment With Hospital Leaders and Nursing 
Chapter 23: Medical Error Disclosure 
Chapter 24: Employed Practitioners 
Chapter 25: Contracted Practitioners 
Chapter 26: Health Law: Some Basics 
Chapter 27: Accreditation and Regulation 
Chapter 28: Medical Staff Governance: Bylaws and Related Documents 
Chapter 29: Healthcare Finance: A Primer 
Chapter 30: Ten Survival Tips for New Leaders

About the Author

William K. Cors, MD, MMM, FAAPL, is an experienced physician executive with a background that includes 15 years of clinical practice, more than 20 years of executive hospital/health system management experience, and extensive experience as a healthcare consultant. He currently serves as the chief medical officer for Lehigh Valley Hospital-Pocono in Pennsylvania. Formerly, he was the vice president of medical staff services for The Greeley Company, Inc., in Danvers, Massachusetts and worked with national hospitals and medical staffs.

Cors holds an AB degree from College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts; an MD from Rutgers New Jersey College of Medicine in Newark, New Jersey; and a master’s in medical management (MMM) from Tulane University in New Orleans. He is a fellow of the American Association for Physician Leadership (FAAPL) and is board-certified in both neurology and medical management.

In addition to working with medical staffs, hospitals, and boards across the country, Cors has also authored numerous books and articles. Since 2007, he has written a monthly column for HCPro’s newsletter, Medical Staff Briefing, on a wide range of medical staff topics. In addition, he has co-authored books including The Medical Staff Leader’s Practical Guide, Sixth Edition (2007), The Greeley Guide to New Medical Staff Models (2008), The Greeley Guide to Physician Employment and Contracting (2010), and An Integrated Approach to Marketing Orthopedic and Neuroscience Service Lines (2013). He was also the author of The Medical Staff Leader’s Survival Guide (2014) and The Medical Staff’s Guide to Employed Physicians (2016).

Chapter Previews

Check out these chapter previews for a full idea of what you can expect!