Oates and Company Blog

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Competition is useful because it can encourage practitioners to push past their perceived limits and reach higher levels of achievement. Over time, sustained competition will make practitioners better at providing medical services; the desire to succeed will encourage them to work on new skills and gain new qualifications. 

Internal competition, however, can be a double-edged sword. Even though encouraging competition is simple, encouraging the right kind of competition is not. Some forms of competition can strengthen multi-physician practices, but others can cause stress and strife among fellow physicians. Uncorrected, these forms of competition can lead to physician burn-out, which, if not addressed, will lead to serious problems with their performance.

To combat these potential problems, managers of multi-physician practices must learn to use the right methods of encouragement. For example, the threat or use of punishment can be used to encourage competition, but it’s an ineffective way to do so – punishment is counter-productive because of its negative impact on morale. Managers should instead use rewards because it positively impacts performance and, mostly importantly, a physician’s belief that he/she can try new things without fear of recrimination.

Rewards need not be expensive. In fact, one of the most popular rewards is verbal praise, particularly in front of others. Managers of multi-physician practices must make sure, of course, that their verbal praise toward one physician doesn’t also serve to belittle another physician – the goal is to encourage cooperative competition between their physicians rather than causing them to dislike and distrust one another. Certain rewards, like financial compensation, are almost guaranteed to inspire hostile interactions between participants. On the other hand, if a manager chooses to offer a financial bonus to all participants who exceed a certain level of achievement, a competitive spirit can be encouraged without sacrificing the cooperation that is essential to multi-physician practices.

The reward structure should be made clear to the all participants at the multi-physician practice. Physicians should understand both the nature of the reward and how to receive the reward. Furthermore, physicians should receive regular updates on their progress toward the goals. However, too much emphasis on the rewards can cause physicians to become stressed out, meaning that it is best for managers to keep the competition as light-hearted as possible.