Administrator Tip: How to Get Physicians to Attend Partnership Meetings

Neal Maerki, administrator of Bend (Ore.) Surgery Center, says his surgery center employs a clever tactic to incent physicians to come to partnership meetings. The center holds a partnership meeting every six months, and Mr. Maerki started offering physicians $200 if they showed up within 15 minutes of the start of the meeting and stayed for a designated amount of time. "If you're there at 6:15 and stay until the designated time, you get $200 on the way out the door," he says. "We used to get 18-22 physicians out of 35 to show up, and at the last meeting we had 32 physicians."

He says the center uses a similar strategy to incent staff attendance at monthly meetings. The center distributes a bonus on a quarterly basis and recently instituted a mandatory staff meeting policy. According to Mr. Maerki, staff members know when the meeting will be held ahead of time, and they must be signed in by 7:00 a.m. or have an excuse approved by their supervisor. "If you miss one of the three meetings in the quarter, that's a 20 percent reduction in your bonus for the quarter," he says.

Read more tips on physician relationships:

-Becoming and Remaining Engaged: Critical to Success of Physician Partners

-3 Common Complaints From ASC Physicians and How to Avoid Them

-3 Ways Surgery Center Physicians Can Increase Case Volume