Programs for the Development of Physician Leaders

Abstract

Physician leaders are crucial as never before to ensure the proper integration of good care and cost containment; such integration is both a reasonable expectation of patients and essential for the survival of health care delivery systems. In today's health care environment, a critical mass of physician leaders must be developed in a systematic fashion so that physicians may truly lead the health care enterprise. The authors (1) describe, with examples, the various types and levels of physician leadership training programs currently being offered; (2) explain the costs and benefits of each program type; and (3) offer a program rationale and model (using a program at their medical school), which they analyze using traditional management concepts such as strategic planning, net present value, and make-versus-buy. The authors emphasize that physician leadership training should be local, offer long-term instruction, and be led by physicians. They conclude by stating that the concept of physician leadership will not and should not be taken seriously by non-physician health care executives until the physician community becomes as serious about leadership and management training as it is about clinical training.

A Systematic Review of Physician Leadership and Emotional Intelligence

“…Hospitals have also reported success in cultivating emotionally intelligent leadership in different hospital improvement and quality care interventions. 34,35,73,[93][94][95] EI has been used as a framework for leadership development in wide-ranging specialty practices [96][97][98] and in primary care. 99,100 A key feature of these interventions is that they were implemented across hospital systems.…”

Developing Physician-Leaders: A Call to Action

“…33 Finally, in a systematic review of available reports, Stoller 26 has suggested six domains of needed competencies as those that characterize effective physician-leadership, including: technical knowledge (i.e., of operations, finance and accounting, information technology and systems, human resources (including diversity), strategic planning, legal issues in health care, and public policy), knowledge of health care (i.e., of reimbursement strategies, legislation and regulation, quality assessment and management), problem-solving prowess (i.e., around organizational strategy and project management), emotional intelligence (i.e., the ability to evaluate self and others and to manage oneself in the context of a group), communication (i.e., in leading change in groups and in individual encounters, such as in negotiation and conflict resolution), and a commitment to lifelong learning. As pointed out in these and other available reports, [22][23][24][25][26] even with significant initial efforts to clarify the needed competencies and to offer programs that attempt to cultivate these skills among emerging physician-leaders, 7,[22][23]26 several basic, pressing questions remain that mandate this call to action. For example, what is the evidence that acquiring these competencies ties to better organizational and/or personal performance?…”

“…Though developing great leaders and embracing change are well-established characteristics of frontrunner organizations in many industry sectors, health-care institutions have generally lagged behind and are just recently awakening to the importance of developing physician-leaders. 7 This perspective addresses the rationale and need for developing physicianleaders.…”

How to Be a Good Academic Leader

“…There are also many venues for more formal training that are valuable and can be tailored to your needs 10 .…”