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What an exciting time for healthcare! The dawn of the 21st
Century challenges us all to look deeply into our practices and ask critical
questions about their viability in this new century. With the advent of high
level technological interventions and changes in the service configuration
for health service, mobility has become the cornerstone for service.
Imagine the challenges this emerging reality creates for providers. More
services are offered in non-intensive environments, some not even related to
hospitals. Remember the day when no procedure could even be considered
without a hospital related admission. Think how many medical procedures no
longer require a hospital related activity. And it will simply continue to
accelerate over the next two decades.
The real question for providers is what does this now portability mean
for practice in the future? Think of how many providers see their roles
within the context of the hospital and have spent their lives there. Now all
providers have to rethink how and where they provide services. So much of
health care is now provided by a broad array of care givers in settings
where control by the physician or professional nurse is simply not possible.
Now nurses and doctors have to make sure that practices and standards of
clinical care are driving the performance and action of caregivers over
which they are having less direct supervision.
Providers must now have an increasing awareness that skills and
competence means sharing skills and information with others. Much of what
was practiced in hospitals now must be available in clinics, homes and other
care centers. Those professionals that once did much of clinical care
themselves must "give away" these same skills to others such as significant
others, family members and other care givers so that people can receive in
their own settings those same services they once got only in hospitals.
Nurses and doctors now must be willing to "give up" control and unilateral
ownership of skills and competence that others now need to see that their
loved ones get what they need in their own homes and personal environments.
This changing dynamic for practice and the management of health care
calls all clinical and administrative leaders to the table to dialogue new
roles and expectations, design new models for health service, transfer
knowledge to others, learn new skills themselves, and make it safe to
transform relationships and care. It is a major challenge that calls for
innovation, creativity and collective wisdom. Boards and executives now must
make it "safe" to explore and experiment with new configurations and newer
kinds of practices and relationships. Clinical leaders must be willing to
shed old rituals and routines as well as roles and relationships to make it
possible to practice their professions in different and more relevant ways.
Could it be more exciting! The ability of leaders to embrace and engage
this new set of expectations will determine how effective and sustainable
health care will be for the future. While it will be challenging, it is the
work of our time. Our future depends on just how many of us embrace this new
future with insight and commitment. Are you one of us? We’re
all counting on it! |
