Developing and Engaging Clinical Leaders in the New Normal of Hospitals: Why It Matters, How to Do It

Healthcare systems across the globe are currently facing perhaps the greatest challenges and pressures to date as the need to improve outcomes, efficiency, productivity, quality, customer satisfaction and sustainability have significantly risen. Further, the emerging focus on value-based healthcare has increased performance expectations. To improve capability to face these challenges, doctors were “transformed” by health organizations and systems into more hybrid figures, i.e., doctor-managers and most recently clinical leaders. Yet, in many cases their engagement hasn’t worked as expected or desired, and there is still much ambiguity on what is the set of expectations attached to the new hybrid role.

Providing a systematic review of previous literature about the progressively worrying challenge in transforming doctors to clinical leaders, Lega and Pirino offer a qualitative analysis of different advanced countries facing the issue of training this hybrid role. Finding improved practices applicable elsewhere, they conclude with a case study focus on the Italian system.

Developing and Engaging Clinical Leaders in the “New Normal” of Hospitals suggests specific policy and practice recommendations on how the system should evolve with regards to clinical leadership.

Federico Lega, Ph.D, is full professor of health policy, management and economics at Milan University and Director of the Research Center in Health Administration (HEAD). He’s the past President of EHMA and chair of its scientific advisory committee and the current Editor in Chief of the journal Health Services Management Research. He regularly advises health systems, organizations and lifescience industries. He has published over ten books and 150 journal articles journals.

Angela Pirino is a Master of Science in Health Management graduate from Bocconi University, Milan, Italy.