Medical Staff Development

Coker Group's medical staff development plan provides a framework for our clients for meeting their community's healthcare needs. It helps determine the number and types of physicians the community requires to meet the needs of its patients.

A medical staff development plan also should provide legal support and documentation for recruiting activities that might come under the scrutiny of the OIG or the IRS.

Additionally, a medical staff development plan should define a realistic approach to physician recruitment and retention that is achievable in terms of marketplace realities.

Coker's Approach

Our planning is both quantitative and qualitative encompassing:

• A demographic analysis of population, and patient origin within the hospital's service area;
• A detailed listing of providers serving the community;
• A study of medical staff composition and utilization patterns;
• Interviews with hospital management, governing board members, physicians and community leaders.

From this information, hospital needs categorized by physician specialty are formulated using national physician-to-population ratios, specialty board recommendations, supply-and-demand analyses, and other sources.

We recommend strategies to meet identified manpower needs including recruiting new physicians to the community, acquiring practices of existing physicians, practice succession planning, and analysis of physician-hospital alignment strategies.