HEALTHCARE LEADERSHIP SKILLS NEEDED FOR POPULATION HEALTH

Many countries and economies-- developed and emerging-- are demanding better health for their populations and workers. A population’s health is determined by its environment, heredity, lifestyles, and medical care system. These factors must be improved in order to improve health, and collaboration among many organizations and sectors of society is needed to improve these factors. However, health care leaders historically have not done this. They have focused mostly on medical care services and have collaborated mostly with only other medical care providers and insurers. To meet demands for better health in their countries and economies, health care leaders must now collaborate with a broader and more diverse group of economic and social partners-- such as churches, schools, businesses, youth groups, courts, public agencies, volunteer groups, neighborhood associations, and others. To do this well, health care leaders must use skills in leadership, stakeholder management, and collaboration. 2 During the past decade, the United States, Canada, and other countries have increased their efforts to improve population health, and this trend is likely to continue in the future (Boufford 1999; Hancock 1999; Marmot 1999; Podger 1999). An important part of these efforts has involved leaders of health care organizations (HCOs) working to improve health in their local communities, rather than only providing acute medical care to the ill and injured. In doing so, these leaders have found that they must work with a new, wide, diverse group of organizations. When their mission was only to deliver acute medical care, health care organizations (HCOs) and their leaders worked closely with other HCOs-- hospitals, medical groups, outpatient centers, rehabilitation facilities, mental health clinics, as well as the payer and financing organizations. However, health is much broader; the World Health Organization (1944) defines it as a “state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. ” Thus, to really improve health and achieve complete wellbeing, HCO leaders must now work with organizations in other economic sectors and parts of society

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