Between declining reimbursement, new incentive programs, and keeping pace with the competitive industry of healthcare, healthcare managers and leaders are in a constant struggle to become more efficient and effective. Healthcare is becoming increasingly complex, and juggling these modern day challenges while still being a good leader and providing effective care for patients can be challenging to say the least.
Although healthcare today presents plenty of unique challenges towards providing quality care, it can be easy to take for granted how healthcare leadership has always directly impacted patients’ experiences and outcomes. As in any industry, effective management can make the difference between good or poor performance and service.
Recent research illustrated in the infographic below reveals that this holds true in healthcare as well. For example, different styles of nursing leadership have been demonstrated to substantially affect rates of patient satisfaction, medication errors, and even patient mortality.
With nearly three-quarters of respondents (74%) to the 2013 HealthLeaders Media Patient Experience Leadership Survey expecting to focus on patient experience training and education over the next three years, the patient experience is clearly a priority.
While there is no one-size-fits-all leadership style guaranteed to work for every situation and organization, it helps to recognize the fundamental differences between management styles, and how they can impact your team and patients alike.
These individuals are at their best when assessing staff performance and completing urgent projects requiring a keen eye to detail. For new or inexperienced staff, a transactional leader can be ideal for reinforcing how to complete unfamiliar tasks with accuracy and consistency.
More than any other leadership style, transformational leaders adopt a mentality of servitude towards patients and staff with the higher purpose of achieving better patient care – and it shows with studies reflecting reduced rates of medication errors and patient mortality.
This approach emphasizes responsibility among each member of your team by encouraging open communication and participation among all staff. These administrators are more interested in improving a system than in finding particular flaws among individuals.
However, they can excel in emergency situations when their decisiveness serves the team best.
These five categories of leadership can help us understand how leaders’ behavior can impact a medical practice’s performance, but a good manager recognizes when each style is necessary in order to best serve their patients.
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