Health care leaders use their competencies and models to influence the quality of medical services available to different patients. They can guide, empower, and encourage their followers to design appropriate philosophies that can result in positive health outcomes. This paper offers powerful guidelines that managers can pursue to mobilize the power of professionalism as a force for quality. It goes further to describe how leaders can embrace the concept to transform payment and public reporting procedures.
Professionalism as a Force for Quality
Professionalism is a powerful attribute that many competent leaders in the field of health possess. Brennan (2016) indicates that the skill is essential since it can empower such individuals to create the best environment for promoting quality. Health care leaders can apply this attribute to promote evidence-based standards, procedures, and practices that focus on the diverse needs of the targeted patients. The issue of quality emerges when the targeted individuals receive evidence-based, timely, and personalized medical services. The leader can also mentor all followers to use their philosophies and design powerful models to deliver desirable care.
When health leaders promote the idea of professionalism, chances are high that ethical values and competency standards will emerge in the targeted unit or setting. This means all caregivers and practitioners will act diligently, form teams, and collaborate to maximize patients’ outcomes (Egener et al., 2017). Pursuing the concept of professionalism, such managers will encourage all followers to respect their patients, remain calm, and support all those in need.
They will empower more beneficiaries of care to provide their views, expectations, and needs. The move will ensure that all units collaborate, embrace emerging technologies, and make decisions that will eventually maximize the quality of available health services. These aspects reveal that health leaders can pursue the idea of professionalism as a powerful force for quality.
Public Reporting and Payment
Managers in healthcare organizations can align the outlined initiatives and strategies with existing incentive systems. Egener et al. (2017) define “incentive systems” as models or plans put in place to compensate or reward workers for the services they offer. Within the healthcare system, leaders can focus on the concept of professionalism to support the development and implementation of powerful incentive systems that will ensure that caregivers and practitioners receive competitive rewards. The introduced aspects, organizational cultures, and initiatives should support such incentive systems (Knickman & Kovner, 2015).
With better payments, salaries, and benefits, most of the healthcare professionals will act diligently, support their patients’ emerging needs, and eventually provide high-quality services. It is vital to ensure that all strategies for empowering patients resonate with the developed incentive systems.
Public reporting is another evidence-based practice that competent health leaders should pursue. Using the concept of professionalism, such managers will coordinate various functions and ensure that all departments provide timely information about the existing insurance plans and providers. The leaders will use an effective care delivery strategy to address the issues of quality and cost (Wilson, 2017). They can also promote payment for performance to accelerate the quality of medical care, increase efficiency, and guide patients to make appropriate insurance decisions. These attributes will eventually transform the experiences of all recipients of medical services.
Conclusion
The above discussion has identified professionalism as a powerful attribute for improving care delivery and quality. Health leaders who consider this concept will guide their followers, make superior decisions, and promote ethical standards that will result in superior health outcomes. Such professionals will also ensure that the existing strategy aligns with incentive systems, such as payment and public reporting.
References
Brennan, M. D. (2016). The role of professionalism in clinical practice, medical education, medical research and health care administration. Journal of Translational Internal Medicine, 4(2), 64-65. Web.
Egener, B. E., Mason, D. J., McDonald, W. J., Okun, S., Gaines, M. E., Fleming, D. A., … Anderson, M. (2017). The charter on professionalism for health care organizations. Academic Medicine, 92(8), 1091-1099. Web.
Knickman, J. R., & Kovner, A. R. (Eds.). (2015). Jonas and Kovner’s health care in the US (11th ed.). New York, NY: Springer Publishing.
Wilson, H. (2017). Current state of public reporting. Journal of the American College of Cardiology, 70(22), 2831-2833. Web.