Physicians Lead the Way in Transforming Healthcare

摘要

An era of awakening began in 1999 with the publication of the Institute of Medicine's report To Err Is Human. The report turned the nation's attention to the urgent need to reduce harm in healthcare institutions. Although the report was met initially with disbelief and distrust of the data-which signaled an alarming level of harm-16 years later, healthcare leaders generally believe that preventable harm continues to occur at unacceptable levels. For this reason, some leaders have committed to achieving zero harm by improving their organization's safety culture, as well as by using improvement science and change management to generate sustainable gains. Across the thousands of US hospitals accredited by The Joint Commission, one observation is consistent: Effective physician leadership is a vital characteristic of high-performing healthcare organizations. Exhibit 1 shows physician engagement along the quality and safety continuum. In high-performing healthcare organizations, physicians lead, collaborate on interdisciplinary teams, and take ownership of improvement activities and outcomes. Conversely, organizations that struggle in their improvement efforts typically lack engaged physicians and effective physician leaders. In these organizations, the physicians-and at times even the physician leaders-are unable to articulate their organization's quality-improvement activities and goals (Nelson et al. 2014; Taitz, Lee, and Sequist 2012).