Physician managers: a description of their job in hospitals

There are those who view management as generic and others who argue that the health care system is significantly different from other systems, requiring managers with special knowledge and skills. This study uses a task inventory mailed to members of the American Academy of Medical Directors (AAMD) to describe and analyze the job of physicians who are in hospital management positions. Physician manager responsibility for the tasks was analyzed by calculating the percentage of responsibility and examining the rank tasks within management function categories. This measures the degree of relationship between two sets of rank-ordered items for task responsibility. Findings indicated that tasks dealing with policy management were among those most likely to be performed by physician administrators while the financial aspects of management are those for which physician managers were least responsible. It was also revealed that physician managers were more involved with program management than with resource management tasks.