The world of healthcare is in a constant state of change, through large disruptors such as medical and technology breakthroughs, and more granular changes such as ongoing process improvements throughout every element of the delivery system. There are many skills required in order to maintain an effective delivery system of care and services for patients and their families.
Keith Hovan explains that doctors and nurses are constantly supported by healthcare leaders; from managers to senior executives, who are responsible for promoting an environment that embraces change in order to constantly improve, to be better. These responsibilities, while varying some, based on whether it is an inpatient setting or outpatient practice, share one commonality: the impact on the health care system and the goal of making it better.
Common Duties for A Healthcare Leader
Healthcare leaders, or those who are looking to join the field, should know that the position requires the ability to work within teams more than any other trait. Here’s a short list of duties that professionals should expect to have in this position, though these may change depending on need or location:
- Ensuring the environment promotes the delivery of high quality and safe care
- Managing and leading multi-disciplinary teams
- Creating and managing budgets
- Ensuring compliance with regulations
- Developing work schedules
- Managing patient fee schedules and billing practices
- Improving facility efficiency and effectiveness
- Training and education of staff
- Communicating with doctors, nurses, and members of the care delivery team in an effective manner
- Working with governing boards and other key stakeholders
In addition to these duties, one of the biggest common grounds that all healthcare leaders have, regardless of location, is a robust knowledge of compliance with the applicable rules, regulations and laws both federal and state, that relate to the services that are provided by their organization.
More detailed explanations related to select responsibilities are discussed below.
Managing People
A major responsibility of a healthcare leader is managing people. The leader is responsible for creating a positive work environment that places importance on team as well as individual performance. Leaders often have direct hire and fire responsibility so the selection of new team members through the interview/selection process is crucial. Keith Hovan states that setting measurable goals and objectives that are clearly understood by every member of the team is critical.
Overseeing budgets
The budget is a financial roadmap for resource allocation and the distribution of services in a given department of area. The budget outlines how much should be spent and/or earned for specific services or interventions in a given period. Having noted that, healthcare delivery and demand for services is often unpredictable. Demand may be driven by the burden of disease in a community. An example could be the number of individuals being treated for influenza. The number of patients needing care can be effected by the number who previously received flu shots or the virulence of the disease. Circumstances outside the leaders control can impact revenue or costs that will cause priorities to change hence requiring leaders to be active managers of their budgets.
Ensuring compliance within regulations
The field healthcare delivery is one of the most complex areas to practice in given its highly regulated environment which includes federal and state laws as well as accrediting body rules and requirements. This means that healthcare leaders need to maintain current knowledge related to all required areas of compliance and be able to communicate those expectations in an understandable manner to all staff.
On a daily basis healthcare leaders must oversee the quality of medical care delivered by providers in their facility to ensure that patients receive safe and effective care. Leaders must also ensure that accurate documentation and billing of patient encounters occurs in a manner compliant with laws and regulations.
The Future of Healthcare Leadership
The future of healthcare leadership is bright and evergrowing. Because of industry diversity, those who pursue such a career may find themselves in a range of working environments: from small private practices, to larger clinic settings, to large health systems.
Regardless of where they find themselves, healthcare leaders should know that they’re a major part of the health ecosystem and have an opportunity to positively impact the lives of many.
