ATTABOY! Nicole Woodruff, RN, administrator of the Observatory Surgery Center, presents podiatric surgeon Michael Cosenza, DPM, with a $50 gift card for dictating his op reports the same day as surgery and then e-signing them the next day.

WHAT MOTIVATES MDs?
What My Docs Will Do for a $50 Gift Card

WELL DONE! Surgeon Brian Fagan, MD, got a $50 gift card for turning in a copy of his ACLS card for his credentialing file on the day it was requested.

In this corner, surgeons: competitive creatures who march to the beat of their own drum and don't like being told what to do. Then there's us, surgical facility leaders who must somehow get docs to do what we need them to do, whether it's bringing in a copy of their DEA license for our credentialing file, doing peer review or dictating operative reports on the first request.

Here at our surgery center, we've come up with a physician incentive program, a fun way to get our docs to toe the line — sometimes without us having to ask twice. Every time we catch our doctors doing something right, we enter their name in a monthly drawing for a $50 gift card. We then enter the 12 monthly winners into an annual drawing for a larger prize (this year we gave away an iPad Mini). The idea is to encourage docs to do what's right, and then to reward them for it so they'll do it again and again, without us having to ask 5 times for a simple piece of paper for a credentialing file.

On my office door, we list the names and good deeds of the monthly winners on a piece of poster board. This incentive program has worked better than we thought it would. You'd be surprised how excited our docs are to win a $50 gift card and how proud they are to see their name on the poster.

Nicole Woodruff, RN
Observatory Surgery Center
Ukiah, Calif.
[email protected]