You know when a physician isn’t pulling their weight.
Leaders like you work hard to set your physicians up for success. You clarify expectations, provide support, and try to compensate fairly. And that effort usually pays off.
But sometimes, a physician will continually fall short in ways that harm colleagues, staff, or even patients. You have to hold them accountable. Otherwise, everything you’ve worked so hard to build will start to crumble.
Yes, the idea of parting ways with any physician is terrifying. A vacancy means fewer patients seen, more pressure on the rest of your physicians, and long months—or even years—trying to fill the spot.
You’re doing everything you can just to hold things together, and the thought of losing even one physician can feel like more than your practice can handle. So, you keep trying to turn things around.
Keeping someone around who consistently underperforms or even refuses to meet expectations altogether will cause your practice more harm than good. They’ll likely drive away their strong physician colleagues, burn out the practice’s staff, and damage the practice’s reputation in the community.
This is one of the toughest parts of leadership. You’re choosing between two bad options: a vacancy that’s hard to fill or a key team member who drags everyone else down.
But you’re responsible for protecting your practice’s culture, your patients, and your community.
Here’s one simple reflection to try this month: Look at your roster of physicians and ask yourself,
“If every physician in my practice performed like my strongest physician, how would things look and feel different?”
If the gap between your best and your weakest is wide, and you’ve already provided clear expectations and support in meeting those expectations, it may be time to ask whether that underperforming physician is helping you move forward or is really just holding you back.
Any vacancy can be filled. But a culture damaged by leaving your biggest issues unaddressed is much harder to rebuild.
