Facilitating Collaboration among a Group of Healthcare Executives

Self-Assessment of Leadership, Collaboration, and Ethics: Western Medical Enterprises Applicant Questionnaire

Section 1: Leadership and Collaboration Experience

Briefly describe an instance where you were required to lead and motivate a team of professionals to collaborate. It does not need to be in a health care setting. If you have not led a team of professionals before, use a different example.

During one of my early assignments in a tertiary healthcare facility, I was assigned to a joint task force that was comprised of representatives from several departmental services, including medical administration, quality assurance, pharmacy, nursing, procurement and others. The joint task force was created in response to an accreditation inspection by the Joint Commission which determined that the healthcare facility was failing to comply with the mandate to properly assess patient satisfaction levels on a timely basis.

Next, analyze your approach to the challenge using specific examples. It is not important whether or not your efforts were successful. What is important is the approach you take to appraising your leadership and collaboration decisions and actions. Do the following:

1. Analyze your leadership of the project. Consider the following:

What was the purpose or shared vision of the team? The shared vision that fueled the task force’s efforts was based on the Joint Commission’s recognition that patient satisfaction represents an important aspect of healthcare quality, and that assessing and taking steps to improve patient satisfaction can result in improved clinical outcomes as well as higher levels of patient engagement for self-care. The Joint Commission's overarching objective in requiring patient satisfaction assessments was to encourage healthcare organizations to become more patient-centered and to provide care that meets the unique needs and preferences of their patients (Patients' Perspectives of Care Survey, 2023).

The effectiveness of your leadership approach and style. Did you get “buy in” from stakeholders? It is tempting to report that all service representatives jumped on the “patient satisfaction” bandwagon from the outset, especially given the importance of the initiative, but there were some holdouts (e.g., medical administration) who insisted that the existing Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems) survey was not only too burdensome for routine administration, it also did not address the facility-specific patient incidents that were being reported. Although these issues were resolved, the process required longer than expected but it did identify two new patient satisfaction measures that were most relevant to our hospital.

Decision making processes and outcomes? What were your good decisions? What would you have done differently? In retrospect, although I believed my decisions were timely and appropriate, I should have sought a change champion (e.g., the chief of staff) to participate in the task force and to help drive the initiative through to completion.

How did you communication your vision, values, decisions, information, et cetera? The above-described shared vision was communicated to all task force members prior to the first meeting using email and face-to-face meetings. The purpose of the task force was discussed and its mandate was emphasized as not only required by the Joint Commission, but important for improving patient outcomes as well.

2. Analyze your approach to fostering collaboration and motivation among stakeholders. Consider:

How well you facilitated member or participant collaboration and engagement with one another. Did participants communicate effectively? Several task force members enthusiastically collaborated through the task force’s 3 months of work. One member, however, never contributed her views and another refused to collaborate based on his original objection to the task force’s creation.

Actions you took to motivate people to realize your vision or tactics. Did the team or participants feel motivated and energized by you? Why or why not? While it is reasonable to suggest that the task force members were motivated to complete the task force’s mandate, it was clear that no one was truly “energized” to perform this additional work for which they received no additional pay.

Section 2: Ethics Experience

Briefly describe an ethical dilemma that that demonstrates your application of ethical principles in the health care setting.

The ethical dilemma involved an assistant hospital director who was purportedly found in a compromising situation with his secretary in his office by another executive. Moreover, this was not the first such incident that was rumored to have taken place with this assistant director.

Next, analyze your response or actions (even if there were none) to the event against one of the reference points below. Were your inactions or choices supported by the chosen framework?