Why become a Certified Physician Executive? - Career Management

Physician Executive, March-April, 1998 by Barbara J. Linney

The CPE Tutorial is a five-day program that teaches executive skills that will make you more valued in the marketplace. If you pass the evaluation on the last day, you become a Certified Physician Executive. This is the certification of choice, the one that the American College of Physician Executives is aggressively promoting to CEOs and recruiters. When you add CPE to your signature and resume, it will inform prospective employers that you have proven to panels of CEOs and other health care leaders that you have:

* Stature as a physician. To take the Tutorial, you must be a board certified, licensed physician with at least three year's experience in practice beyond residency training.

* Been successfully tested in all disciplines of medical management. To take the Tutorial, you must have completed the Graduate Program in Medical Management (formerly the Certificate in Medical Management); or completed an accredited graduate management degree which includes the following courses or equivalents as determined by the Credentials Committee: Health Care Finance, Medical Informatics, Ethics, Health Law, Quality, Managing Physician Performance, and Managing Change and Innovation; or have 200 hours of management education which has been evaluated by examination and includes the seven courses listed above.

* Demonstrated management experience. You must provide a one-page narrative describing your management experience and a letter of recommendation affirming your experience from the person to whom you report.

* Successfully completed the Tutorial with a five minute presentation describing your skills and competencies. The President of ACPE, Barbara LeTourneau, MD, MBA, CPE, FACPE, described the Tutorial in the business meeting at the 1997 Spring Institute in San Antonio. "During these five days, candidates will be given the tools necessary to demonstrate that they have the skills and competencies expected in a physician executive. It will then be up to candidates to use these tools in convincing a panel of CEOs and other health care leaders, including Fellows of the College, that they have the knowledge, competencies, and accomplishments of value in the marketplace. Candidates who succeed in this will be awarded the recognition of CPE, or Certified Physician Executive... After discussion with CEOs, recruiters, and governing boards, we know that the knowledge you can assess on written exams is necessary but insufficient. So the evaluation for the Tutorial is not another written test. It is an oral presentation that will be evaluated based on content and presentation style.

Topics covered in the Tutorial

The early parts of the Tutorial provide education and training to be used in the final presentation.

Day I

* Communication strategies

* Writing Presentations

* Listening and feedback skills

* Mentoring other potential physician executives

* Knowledge of medical management education resources

* Marketplace--What skills and competencies are employers looking for?

Day 2

* Resume preparation

* Networking

* Interviewing from both sides of the desk

* Executive image--How to dress for effectiveness

* Negotiating the job and the salary

* What to do when fired

The topics on the third and fourth and day increase physician executives' effectiveness when they already have the position they want:

Day 3

* How to write proposals and business plans

* Making presentations using four different communication styles

Day 4

* Maneuvering through organizational politics

* Finding medical management information on the Internet

* Changing physician behavior

* Dealing with disruptive physicians

After you listen to lectures each of the first four days, you go with your assigned group to a room where you practice the discussed skills in front of a video camera and then receive feedback from the seven other people in your group and a Teaching Fellow. Teaching Fellows are Fellows of the College who have taken the Tutorial, become CPEs, and have been trained to facilitate the cohort groups of eight. There is no better teacher than a video camera. Feedback from others is more believable if you can see for yourself the behavior other group members are describing. The four practice sessions during the week and available cameras some evenings give you time to change and improve your communication skills.

Day 5

On the last day, you make a video-taped presentation that demonstrates your skills and competencies to a panel of Teaching Fellows and health care leaders. The panel makes a recommendation to the Credentials Committee of the Certifying Commission in Medical Management that you be passed or deferred. Unlike the methods used for many other certifying boards where written exams are administered, the certifying process for CCMM is subjective. You must convince the panel and the Credentials Committee that you have skills and can communicate them. This presentation is a test of how effectively you will present yourself in the marketplace. You will be notified of the results in April and November.