6 Physician Personas Every Executive Will Recognize

Everyone works differently, and recognizing that can help executives fine tune their management tactics to be more effective and meet physicians’ and medical groups’ needs.

The Advisory Board detailed six personas that are worthy of attention, especially when determining where a physician will work best.

Here are the six distinct physician personas that every executive will recognize.

1. Digital Natives

“Digital native” physicians easily adapt to the EMR. They incorporate technology into their workloads and have mastered the balance of writing enough information in the EMRs patient note to meet clinical objectives, but not so much that it becomes confusing. They are comfortable with their patients via email and telephone and embrace virtual consults.

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2. Digital Adaptors

These physicians struggle to manage electronic work demands and are characterized as having lower typing seeds, difficulty with the EMR user interface and trouble balancing electronic and live patient demands.

3. Superproducers

“Superproducer” physicians are deeply motivated by productivity demands. They prefer tiered RVU compensation and are willing to work evenings and weekends to increase opportunity for clinical visits.

4. Threshold Workers

These physicians are motivated by both clinical objectives and the desire to strike work-life balance. They prefer threshold-based RVU compensation and oppose nontraditional work hours. Like the superproducers, threshold workers might be more cut out for a certain care setting. Some medical groups offer threshold workers roles in urgent care centers, where they receive shift-based salaries.

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5. Coaches

Physicians that see themselves as the leader of the care team and the owner of the patient relationship are referred to as “coaches.” They take on the responsibility of supervising and managing other providers. Medical groups can structure compensation to incent coach behavior from primary care physicians. The PCPs may receive a set annual amount to supervise advanced practitioners or they may receive a fee for each RVU generated by an AP.

6. Quarterbacks

Quarterback physicians see themselves as members of a care team – a team made up of peers who are collectively responsible for patient relationships. Quarterbacks may “call the play” but then hand off responsibility for the patient to another provider. Many medical groups structure compensation to bring out quarterback behavior by asking APs to cover a portion of the PCPs practice costs or involve PCPs and APs in profit sharing.