Promoting Professionalism and Professional Accountability

Committed leadership, effective planning and teamwork, and reliable implementation are essential elements of successful healthcare initiatives, clinical outcomes, and research endeavors. Lapses in professional conduct at any level may undermine the teamwork necessary to achieve goals in safety and outcomes. Therefore, Academic Medical Center (AMC) leaders need means for identifying lapses and addressing unnecessary variation in professional performance. This chapter discusses application of self- and group-regulation—hallmarks of professionalism—to a hypothetical AMC faculty member, “Dr. A,” recruited to create a Coordinated Clinical Care Center, an important programmatic need for the department. Despite his department Chair’s expectations that Dr. A will implement a multidisciplinary approach to patient care, evidence accumulates that Dr. A’s performance is undermining attainment of the Center’s goals. The chapter describes an evidence-based plan and process by which AMCs may promote professionalism and restore full and effective functioning (“redeem”) physicians—both leaders like Dr. A and non-leader colleagues—who model conduct inconsistent with organizational values and a culture of safety.