Hospital reporting structure

I used to work in Michigan at a large private health system where we had a Mid-Level Provider Council. I know, I know, they used that "bad word" there. But anyway, there is a designated Director for this council and it's an appointed position. Any NP, CRNA, CNM, or PA employed by the health system automatically becomes a member. When I was there, the Director was a PA but NP's were quite active within that council in a number of committees.

The Council works with upper management and the physician's group in addressing issues that affect the Council members. It is basically the collective voice for all the non-physician providers. Some of the accomplishments I've seen when I was there were the implementation of an improved benefit package for all Council members, one that is similar to physician benefits in the medical group. The Council also sponsors annual retreats and educational offerings for all members.

The Council is not part of the chain of command in terms of clinical practice. Each individual NP still report to the chief of whatever hospital service line they belong to. However, each member could address grievances to the Council.

Where I work now, we don't have a similar structure but all the NP's, PA's, CNM's, and CRNA's belong to a collective group called Allied Health Providers (AHP). There are representatives from each group that meet regularly to address practice issues with the administration and the medical group. The AHP group standardized the credentialing process across the medical center for members and have also been involved in maintaining an intranet site for members to log in their cases (procedures performed). Many of the NP's in our hospital are represented by the nurses' union in terms of collective bargaining so this AHP group has no role in salary and benefit negotiations.

Henry Ford Health System