Leadership is the Key to Chief Medical Officer Success. (The Evolving Role of the Physician Executive)‪.‬

TWENTY YEARS AGO, WHEN a hospital established a medical director position, the goal was to place a physician on the senior management team who would be the liaison between the administrative and medical staff, keeping all parties informed and assuring that decisions included a clinical perspective. The medical director or vice president of medical affairs assumed differing levels of responsibility and management duties depending on the support of the hospital's CEO and the board and medical staffs commitment to the concept of a physician in a leadership role. Managed care organizations had a place for medical directors from the beginning as a liaison between the plan and the physicians in the community. Self-governed group practices tended to use one of their own physicians to serve as intermediary, as well as to improve communications. All of these physician executives were also responsible for the utilization review and quality of care functions, and these positions increased in levels of responsibility as the organizations grew and the marketplace became more complex.