What Is and Why Is Healthcare Leadership Important?

More than ever, the healthcare industry is in dire need of competent leadership. In particular, the pandemic has brought attention to the significance of creative healthcare executives who can come up with workable solutions fast. Effective and visionary leaders are needed to address other concerns including the affordability and accessibility of healthcare.

Read More: Moyez Ladhani

Here’s an introduction of healthcare leadership, including what it is, why it matters, and what makes a successful leader in the healthcare system, in case you’re curious about how you might make an impact in the field today.

Healthcare Leadership: What Is It?

The capacity to successfully manage a team is a common definition of leadership. But this description merely scratches the surface of what constitutes a successful leader. The goal of healthcare leadership is to spot flaws in the system and come up with remedies, not to keep things as they are.

“Healthcare leadership is taking an active role in the direction of healthcare today,” says Dr. Robert Baginski, program director of Northeastern University’s Doctor of Medical Science (DMSc) in Healthcare Leadership program. It entails more than just supervising employees, running a healthcare company, and handling insurance. “Healthcare leadership ideally should be guiding healthcare in the direction that we feel it should go in the future,” Baginski adds in his explanation.

The Value of Leadership in the Medical Field

In the healthcare industry, effective leadership is crucial, especially in light of the high cost of contemporary treatment. Here’s a deeper look at the several ways that long-lasting effects may be achieved through successful leadership.

1. Enhances Care Quality

Good leadership is essential to providing high-quality healthcare. When a medical team lacks coordination or attention, patients frequently suffer the consequences. Effective leaders prioritize others, improve productivity, and foster collaboration. As healthcare frequently necessitates a quick response to difficulties that develop, this competence is essential to providing patients with high-quality care. Effectiveness and communication are essential in these circumstances.

2. Produces Flexible Leaders

The COVID-19 pandemic is one of the most notable instances of how healthcare must be flexible. The American Psychological Association listed seven essential leadership traits in 2020 that were required to stop the epidemic.

Efficient handling of stress

Positivity and empathy while exchanging knowledge

Developing trust via reliability and competence

Sincerity and openness

Regular correspondence

receptivity to criticism

They ought to serve as examples.

Effective leadership is essential when uncertainty and unpredictability are prevalent. Not only can a skilled leader handle tense circumstances, but they can also guide people through them and come up with long-term solutions.

3. Promotes Forward-Looking

Although the terms management and leadership are sometimes used interchangeably, leadership actually encompasses much more than a company’s daily activities. Leaders that are focused on improving healthcare and looking toward the future are especially needed in the healthcare industry.

Every nation should prioritize healthcare leadership, yet the United States has the highest healthcare expenses of any nation, according to the World Population Review. Moreover, even though there are fewer Americans without health insurance than ever before, the healthcare system is heavily reliant on having access to this kind of coverage.

In comparison to comparable nations, the United States possesses the following, per a study from the Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker:

The greatest rate of pregnancy-related death

An above-average prevalence of congestive heart failure with diabetes

a greater proportion of recorded drug and treatment mistakes than in most other similar nations

Effective leadership may contribute to advances in the healthcare system, according to Baginski. “In my opinion, healthcare should ideally be focused on the future and finding ways to help those in need of it the most, regardless of their insurance status, financial situation, or place of residence.”

4. Generates Creative Leaders

The ongoing lack of qualified healthcare workers is one of the biggest issues the sector is now dealing with. A growing percentage of healthcare professionals are suffering from burnout, and about 47% of American healthcare workers intend to quit their present job in the next three years. In 2022, a poll of one thousand healthcare workers revealed that 48% of them thought their company wasn’t doing enough to prevent burnout.

Leaders that can recognize and address the issues causing burnout are desperately needed in the healthcare sector. According to Baginski, effective leaders differ from ineffective leaders in two ways:

Identification: Being able to identify issues as they develop and thinking ahead to possible issues. For instance, according to the same poll, 57% of healthcare professionals worry that their extremely repetitious jobs may eventually cause burnout.

Innovation: Providing answers to such issues and advancing healthcare forward. Many healthcare professionals believe that technology and automation will enhance their overall experience and enable them to concentrate more intently on patient care by addressing the monotonous activities in the industry.