Toward the evolution of a newly skilled managerial class for healthcare organizations

• Published in: Frontiers of health services management 2006, Vol.22 (3), p.31-36
• Main Author: Fine, David J
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Corporate culture; Decision making; Decision Making, Organizational; Education; Efficiency, Organizational; Epidemiology; Evidence-based medicine; Evidence-Based Medicine - education; Executives; Health administration; Health care industry; Health care policy; Health Facility Administrators - education; Health Facility Administrators - standards; Health services; Hospital administration; Hospitals; Humans; Management styles; Managerial skills; Managers; Patient satisfaction; Population; Professional Competence; Public health; Skills; United States
• ISSN: 0748-8157; 2475-2797
• DOI: 10.1097/01974520-200601000-00004

Management "by the numbers" is an appropriate goal for the American healthcare system. In the author's view of management and leadership, the notion that healthcare organizations can be well served by the steady handshake and winning smile of a "grip and grin" manager is suspect. In fact, the essence of management is often to motivate people within the organization to embrace congruent values in multi-functional and cross-disciplinary teams and to undertake with enthusiasm tasks that, on an individual basis, had not been previously recognized as necessary. However, the opportunity to transform the enterprise into one whose central culture is eager for data-driven managerial decision making is compromised by the "outside expert syndrome." People must look forward to the evolution of a newly skilled managerial class in healthcare. It should be one in which optimization of clinical outcomes and minimization of cost through best-demonstrated management practice is a reasonable expectation.