M E Nolan | PubMed Health

PubMed1994

Nonqualified benefit programs help recruit and retain physicians.

Healthcare reform, mergers, and managed care are leading many physician employees to reconsider their association with hospitals and other healthcare facilities. Healthcare organizations can no longer rely on traditional retirement benefit packages and qualified plans to attract or keep these physicians. Changes in tax legislation have made nonqualified retirement plans an important factor in recruiting and retaining physicians. This article examines nonqualified retirement plans and how they can be used by healthcare organizations to supplement qualified plans benefits. While the article focuses on physicians, nonqualified plans also can be used to supplement benefits and secure the financial future of other high-salaried healthcare professionals.

Hospital-Physician Relations↗

PubMed1993

Initial encounters between people with a mild mental handicap and psychiatrists: an investigation of a method of evaluating interview skills.

This study reports the results of an initial study into the ability of psychiatrists to interview people with a mild mental handicap who are accompanied by a caregiver. Initial interviews by 12 psychiatrists of different ages (30-57 years) and differing levels of experience with this client group were recorded on video tape. Three of the recordings were used to train four judges who were familiar with examining clinical interactions, though not between doctors and patients. The judges used a specially designed rating scale. The remaining nine interviews were evaluated independently by the four judges. There was a correlation of 0.65 (Kendall's coefficient of concordance, W) for the judges' evaluations using the rating scale for the nine interviewers. However, there was greater agreement between judges as to who were the best and worst interviewers (W = 0.86). Some of the aspects of the interviews which contributed to the variability in the judgments are discussed.

Adult↗