Creating a Leadership Legacy of Caring: A Health Care Leader's Ultimate Journey

Abstract

Leadership in health care today is a fast-paced, demanding, and challenging world that carries enormous responsibility. Health care leadership performance is receiving more scrutiny than ever as the requirements and performance expectations continue to rise at all levels of leadership. After all, the role and performance of a health care leader impacts countless lives. Patients, families, employers, regulatory agencies, payers, and each of us as health care consumers want and expect the latest in clinical treatment and equipment; faster, more accurate diagnoses and results; and better care and service from hospitals, health care organizations, and caregivers. This trend represents consumerism at its finest. But above all, consumers expect hospitals and health care organizations to be places of caring and healing—and rightfully so. Patients want their care and service to be outstanding, with caregivers, staff members, and leadership working together as a team, and consistently demonstrating they really care about the patient as a person. Nobody wants a health care service encounter to be cold and uncaring or to be treated as a number or just another diagnosis. When a patient experiences a negative health care service encounter, it can lead to negative perceptions about quality and safety, possibly even affecting the treatment outcome.