By Holly Hayes
“The era of ‘one patient, one doctor’ is coming to an end, and so today’s trainees will practice in collaborative teams rather than individually,” Carl Snyderman, MD, David Eibling, MD and Jonas Johnson, MD state in their article “The Physician as Team Leader: New Job Skills Are Required” in Academic Medicine, a journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC).
Atul Gawande, MD agrees with the concept of the physician as team leader when he responded to a comment during his Live Chat on the New Yorker blog in August, “Yes, your doctor should be the “team captain.”
– Yes, your doctor should be willing and able to explain what’s going on: to find out from your mother-in-law and the family what your priorities are;
– to formulate a plan based on the most effective known means to achieve those priorities and explain it to you each day;
– to get everyone together in following through on that plan;
– then report on how that plan has gone and make adjustments with you.”
Why are physicians the best team member to be the captain? The AAMC article states: “The physician is a facilitator and communicator and must make decisions about the allocation of health care resources, evaluate the evidence for best practices, and monitor quality of care.”
What skillset is needed for physicians to lead a team of healthcare workers to improve quality, increase availability of healthcare and reduce costs? Snyderman, et al believe:
The next generation of physicians will need to have an expanded skill set that borrows from the curricula of other disciplines, specifically training in business practices. Executive training provides the necessary leadership skills and fosters strategic thinking. Knowledge of health care economics is important for optimal utilization of limited resources and alignment of health care practices with business principles. An understanding of process control in industry can be applied to maximizing the efficiency of health care dollars and to monitoring outcomes with enhanced quality of care. Training in human resources provides the people skills necessary to manage a team and communicate effectively with a diverse patient population. Decision modeling results in a more analytical approach to complex decisions and the incorporation of factors (quality of life, risk valuation) that are important to patients. Service marketing teaches a patient-oriented approach that maintains focus on the patient (consumer) rather than on the profit. A business school approach fosters a “big picture” mentality that challenges physicians to think about the societal issues of health care that have widespread benefits.
Holly Hayes is a mediator at Karl Bayer, Dispute Resolution Expert where she focuses on mediation of health care disputes. Holly holds a B.A. from Southern Methodist University and a Masters in Health Administration from Duke University. She can be reached at holly@karlbayer.com.
