Physician leadership imperative to health care redesign

Citation

(2011), "Physician leadership imperative to health care redesign", Leadership in Health Services, Vol. 24 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/lhs.2011.21124aab.005

Physician leadership imperative to health care redesign

Article Type: News and views From: Leadership in Health Services, Volume 24, Issue 1

Keywords: Physician leadership skills, Healthcare redesign, Leadership development programmes, Patient-centred care

Physicians need to lead the charge in health care redesign, according to delegates at the recent sessions of the 143rd annual general meeting of the Canadian Medical Association. The SMA Board of Directors recognized the need to develop physician leaders a number of years ago and has embarked on an active Physician Leadership Development program to provide leadership in the quality improvement and system transformation necessary for patient-centred care.

“We are progressing well with our in-house offerings of the CMA’s Physician Management Institute (PMI) series of courses. We have completed two series of the Foundation Level modules, and a full class of physicians has taken the first of the Advanced Level”, says SMA President Dr Guruswamy Sridhar.

The remaining three Advanced Level modules will be given in the fall and winter and the SMA is currently working with the CMA to set up a multi-year schedule to begin the full series of Foundation Level courses again. Once finalized, details of dates and registration will be made available on the SMA website and through other SMA communication channels.

Another exciting development is the Canadian Society of Physician Executives’ (CSPE) initiation of a formal credential for the designation of Canadian Certified Physician Executive (CCPE). “One of our goals is to see a number of our physicians achieve this designation. We now have more than 100 physicians who have taken advantage of at least one of the in-house modules”, Dr Sridhar says. “It is our goal to have between 20 and 30 physicians who have completed at least four of the Foundation Level and all four Advanced Level courses in order to be eligible for consideration for the formal credential through the academic route.

“With targeted funding, the SMA has brought the CMA’s PMI series in-house and are on track for a significant cohort to achieve the recently announced credentialed designation.

The SMA has also initiated a partnership with the College of Physicians and Surgeons and the Health Quality Council to send physicians to a number of the high-quality educational offerings of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) including their national forum. This partnership has been expanded to include the College of Medicine, the Ministry of Health, and the regional health authorities.

“We are already seeing some of our physicians providing critical leadership to a number of provincial initiatives” Dr Sridhar says. “I am sure that physician leadership will only expand and flourish as health care transformation continues to move forward”.

For more information: www.sma.sk.ca