Health Care Administration and Leadership Health care leaders in the United States have recognized Quality and Safety, Community Health, Health Care Access and Coverage, and Leadership and Governance as 4 vital industry areas. Though all 4 are addressed by The Human Research and Educational Trust (HRET), the two areas of Quality and Safety and Leadership and Governance were chosen for this paper. HRET has significantly impacted both those areas. "Quality and Safety" has been addressed by no fewer than 15 HRET studies, many of which address disparities in health care based on race, ethnicity and primary language, as well as "applied research" projects that may be used by health care providers to constantly improve patient safety. HRET has exerted a strong impact in that area by providing "thought leaders" on U.S. advisory panels, by training health care providers for collection and use of patient data and "pathway tools" used by health care providers. The area of "Leadership and Governance" has been addressed by HRET through surveys and unification of health care CEOs, safety leaders and safety teams throughout the national industry, as well as its Health Services Research journal. HRET has impacted this area as the "research affiliate" of the American Hospital Associations Center for Healthcare Governance and by providing surveys presented at every AHA Center educational meeting for the Blue ribbon Panel on Health Care Governance. Recognizing the importance of leadership, knowledge and the combined intelligence of U.S. Health Care industry leaders, HRET has strongly affected and improved our national health care.
Healthcare Administration and Leadership
Health care in the United States has progressed and improved to the point at which providers in all health care settings have defined and developed at least 4 major areas of importance for effective health care. Knowledgeable health care leaders have identified Quality and Safety; Community Health; Health Care Access and Coverage; and Leadership and Governance as key areas that must be constantly addressed and improved to provide optimal health care. The Human Research and Educational Trust has provided significant leadership in those 4 areas since its establishment approximately 60 years ago. By developing studies and assessments, as well as uniting health care leadership across the nation, HRET has exerted a great impact on health care in America.
Analysis
Two of the HRET's Major Areas and Why Each Area is Important to Health Care Administrators
The four major areas addressed by the Health Research and Educational Trust are: Quality and Safety; Community Health; Health Care Access and Coverage; and Leadership and Governance (Health Research and Educational Trust, 2007, p. 2). "Quality and Safety" is focused on the delivery of high-quality and safe health care for patients, benefiting patients and their families (Health Research and Educational Trust, 2007, p. 3). "Community Health" deals with population health, including promotion of health, prevention of disease and the important connection between health care and the health of the public (Health Research and Educational Trust, 2007, p. 9). "Health Care Access and Coverage" concerns the same availability of care for every society member, regardless of his/her location, race, social status, economic status, age or gender (Health Research and Educational Trust, 2007, p. 14). Finally, "Leadership and Governance" stresses the continual improvement of governance in health care by tracking issues, trends and practices, studying links between governance and clinical/financial results and finding ways in which hospital/health system governance can rethink and increasingly add value to their organizations (Health Research and Educational Trust, 2007, p. 16). While all four areas are vital to effective health care, "Quality and Safety" and "Leadership and Governance" were chosen for this assignment.
"Quality and Safety" is important to health care administrators because each patient and his/her family are entitled to the safe, highly-effective health care. Consequently, the entire health care industry strives to constantly improve patient safety and the effectiveness of treatment and it is the health care administrator's privilege and duty to continually examine and improve his/her institution's systems in the areas of safety and quality of care. "Leadership and Governance" is also important to health care administrators because a health care institution's policy and practice are often established and improved "from the top down." Administration establishes policies and practices with the institution's "big picture" in mind and those policies/practices are ideally implemented by the institution's entire workforce. In addition, those policies/practices are ideally continually reviewed with input from the staff and continually improved to provide optimal care while enhancing the institution's profitability. Consequently, strong leadership and governance are vital to highly effective institutionalized health care. The importance of leadership development has necessarily been recognized and facilitated by, for example, Baptist University: commencing at its creation in 2000, Baptist University has employed a 13-member board of directors and an executive group to address 10 core competencies of effective leadership: "goal achiever, people developer, communicator, team-oriented, innovator, service commitment, organized around priorities, rewards and recognizes, resourceful and personal mastery" (Dixon & Bilbrey, 2004). Furthermore, since health care institution are also necessarily business institutions to which health care administrators must adapt, great attention has been paid to the essential elements and pros/cons of business leadership styles. Focusing on the necessary business aspect of institutions, including but not limited to health care institutions, Mind Tools Ltd. has defined 10 main leadership styles, including: transactional, autocratic, bureaucratic, charismatic, democratic/participative, laissez-faire, task-oriented, people/relations-oriented, servant and transformational (Mind Tools Ltd., n.d.). Focusing on the basic characteristics of each leadership style, along with some pros/cons of each leadership style, Mind Tools Ltd. presents an easily read and reviewed menu of possible leadership styles that may be employed by a hospital administrator.
The HRET's Role in Addressing Those Two Areas, With Examples
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