Clinical leaders should schedule physician rounding at times and places that work for each doctor, whether that's coffee, a hallway, or a parking lot, rather than what's convenient for the manager. Skip the desk to reduce power dynamics, and use a tracking tool to ensure rounding actually happens.
Chapters
You can share the questions, but you still need to have the conversation. And then the next thing I get asked is, where should I do, you know, the rounding app? And what time of day? And, you know, and what I would want to encourage you to think about is if you think about what we're trying to do when it comes to improving the physician experience, make the time and location based more on their preference, not on yours. So if you've got a physician who, wants to do it over a cup of coffee, then do the rounding over a cup of coffee. If you've got a physician who'd rather do it in the lounge, do it in the lounge. If they'd rather— physician would rather do it in the hallway, do it in the hallway. Try to make it more about what's better for them, not about for you. I've seen this done in the hallway, the lounge, the parking lot, coffee shop, a tailgate of a truck, on a golf course. The other thing I would just encourage you to be mindful of is be aware of the power gradient. If you do it in the office setting, Just be careful about being behind your desk when you do it because that does create a little bit of power gradient that helps diminish some of the dynamics in that rounding conversation. So be mindful of that. People ask me all the time, is can rounding be done on a schedule or should it be done just in time? And the answer is sure, either one. So I have some physicians who they live and die by their calendar and by the schedules on their calendar. And so it makes sense to actually have your rounding schedule with them and that's okay. And some physicians it's gonna make sense to catch them when you can, and that's okay also. So, figure out what's gonna work best, and same thing for your schedule. For many executives, I've seen that it works best to have it on their calendar, they've got block time for it, and that's down at the very bottom of this. Or some of you all, you might be better just doing it on a just-in-time basis, and that's okay as well. But I would encourage you to make sure you have some sort of tool to help you make sure you get it done and remember to get it done.
