Is it worth it, especially given the many competing demands on clinicians time?
Making clinicians organisational leaders is a huge and costly task. Is it worth it, especially given the many competing demands on clinicians time? Introduction Making senior clinicians as organisational leaders after years of their clinical & practical skills, time investment, financial cost to something which they were not trained from the medical school and higher specialty training is definitely a huge and costly task. Traditional view of doctors and nurses are trained to look after the sick and suffering patients while managers plan strategically for finance and development is not a healthy model in the modern healthcare industry. Making clinicians as organizational leaders is worth every penny as evidence from all over the world suggest that health care systems led by doctors are offering a fantastic quality of service and value for money. Classic examples for this doctor leading organisations Kaiser Permanente, Veterans Health Administrations, Mayo clinic (USA) and Apollo hospitals (India). Health care systems across the world are facing their toughest challenge of providing safe and quality care to the patients at this time of austerity in a cost efficient way. Cost of providing healthcare is spiraling with the invention of new technologies, expensive medications, increasing life expectancy and overall patient expectations coupled with demand. Our own National Health Service is faced with a challenge of its life time saving 15% of cost efficiency savings in the next three years whilst promoting innovation and new care models to the patient care pathway. My argument in this essay would justify the reasons behind the concept of hybrid Clinician Leaders and their cost effectiveness in the healthcare industry. Doctor Leaders are better equipped with strategic decisions in planning patient pathways, integrated care with primary care, dialogue and engagement with commissioning agencies. My view is supported by McKinsey and London School of Economics (Pedro J, Castro, Stephen J Dorgan (2008) found that hospitals with greatest clinician participation in the management scored about 50% higher on important drivers of performance than hospitals with low levels of clinical leadership. Definition of Organisational Leaders According to Wireman & Carlson (2005) leadership as a process is defined more in terms of social interaction and group dynamics in which greater emphasis is attached to followers and context, emotional intelligence and the development of skills in areas such as influence, relationship management, communication and motivation. Clinical leadership as used in McKinsey Quarterly (Mountford J and Webb C (2009) states putting clinicians at the heart of shaping and running the clinical services, so as to deliver excellent outcomes for patients and populations, not as a one off task or project, but as a core part of clinicians professional identity. My personal view on clinical leadership after going through literature review is that Clinical leadership is basically giving power to the frontline clinicians so as to give them capability and accountability to improve the health care for the population they serve whether it is a specialty level as in my case as a clinical director of renal services or wider population as a Chief Executive of a NHS Hospital. Corporate Versus Clinical Leadership My next question is – Are there any differences between leaders of corporate organisations with the leaders of health care sector. My view is that organisational leaders in healthcare are completely different from corporate leaders. We cannot compare the clinical leaders with the corporate leaders for obviously many reasons. Classic example…; Making clinicians organisational leaders is a huge and costly task. Is it worth it, especially given the many competing demands on clinicians time? Introduction Making senior clinicians as organisational leaders after years of their clinical & practical skills, time investment, financial cost to something which they were not trained from the medical school and higher specialty training is definitely a huge and costly task. Traditional view of doctors and nurses are trained to look after the sick and suffering patients while managers plan strategically for finance and development is not a healthy model in the modern healthcare industry. Making clinicians as organizational leaders is worth every penny as evidence from all over the world suggest that health care systems led by doctors are offering a fantastic quality of service and value for money. Classic examples for this doctor leading organisations Kaiser Permanente, Veterans Health Administrations, Mayo clinic (USA) and Apollo hospitals (India). Health care systems across the world are facing their toughest challenge of providing safe and quality care to the patients at this time of austerity in a cost efficient way. Cost of providing healthcare is spiraling with the invention of new technologies, expensive medications, increasing life expectancy and overall patient expectations coupled with demand. Our own National Health Service is faced with a challenge of its life time saving 15% of cost efficiency savings in the next three years whilst promoting innovation and new care models to the patient care pathway. My argument in this essay would justify the reasons behind the concept of hybrid Clinician Leaders and their cost effectiveness in the healthcare industry. Doctor Leaders are better equipped with strategic decisions in planning patient pathways, integrated care with primary care, dialogue and engagement with commissioning agencies. My view is supported by McKinsey and London School of Economics (Pedro J, Castro, Stephen J Dorgan (2008) found that hospitals with greatest clinician participation in the management scored about 50% higher on important drivers of performance than hospitals with low levels of clinical leadership. Definition of Organisational Leaders According to Wireman & Carlson (2005) leadership as a process is defined more in terms of social interaction and group dynamics in which greater emphasis is attached to followers and context, emotional intelligence and the development of skills in areas such as influence, relationship management, communication and motivation. Clinical leadership as used in McKinsey Quarterly (Mountford J and Webb C (2009) states putting clinicians at the heart of shaping and running the clinical services, so as to deliver excellent outcomes for patients and populations, not as a one off task or project, but as a core part of clinicians professional identity. My personal view on clinical leadership after going through literature review is that Clinical leadership is basically giving power to the frontline clinicians so as to give them capability and accountability to improve the health care for the population they serve whether it is a specialty level as in my case as a clinical director of renal services or wider population as a Chief Executive of a NHS Hospital. Corporate Versus Clinical Leadership My next question is – Are there any differences between leaders of corporate organisations with the leaders of health care sector. My view is that organisational leaders in healthcare are completely different from corporate leaders. We cannot compare the clinical leaders with the corporate leaders for obviously many reasons. Classic example…
