Who Should Run the Hospitals; Medical Doctors or Business Managers?

The healthcare department is growing exponentially complex; the clinicians are over-burdened by the ever-increasing challenges of keeping the balance between technology and humanity, and cost and quality. These demands involve extraordinary leaders.

Long gone are the days when Doctors were once considered ineligible for leadership roles as their capabilities and training steered them to be “valiant lone healers”. People used to think that doctors should concentrate on the patient’s health, whereas the business managers are the right fit for running their daily task in the hospital management. And now, things are changing. 

The increasing importance of patient-driven care and competence to ensure high standards of clinical outcomes entails that the physicians are now being outfitted for the leadership. Even some researchers suggest that with a doctor in charge in the managerial layer impacts overall better patient care as well as a better hospital.

Doctors Make Good Managers

According to Social Science & Medicine (journal PDF), among the 300 top-ranked US hospitals and healthcare centers specializing in cancer, heart surgery, and digestive disorders, physician-run facilities ranked higher. A senior researcher Amanda Goodall tracked the professional background of all the Chief Executive of these hospitals and then matched the performance of physician-run clinics with that of clinics supervised by a nonmedical professional.

This study concluded that the total hospital quality scores of doctor-led hospitals were around 25% greater than other hospitals. In the case of cancer specialized, doctor-driven hospitals showed 33 percent higher scores among all.

However, along with medical backgrounds, it is also important to undertake good management practices to ensure greater hospital performance. Therefore, the chief executives of the hospitals should also have proficiency in management along with a clinical degree. To put this short, to manage a hospital efficiently, it is important to keep a balance of clinical and managerial knowledge.

Management Training Can Guarantee Good Results.

Physician-leaders are considered as the extremely effective managers just because they have a background. Still, great leadership also demands social skills. Health care is one of those limited sectors where the absence of collaboration can actually cost a human life; still, physicians are not prepared to be better team players.

For those physicians who want to come forth as an emergent leader, a great choice is an executive MBA. Physicians can easily get enrolled in different online programs for the Executive MBA in Dubai and other parts of the world.  There is a plenitude of In-house programs these days that have been introduced in many healthcare institutions by the medical societies and by some famous business schools (like Harvard Business School, Wharton, the Weatherhead School of Management, etc.).

To wrap up:

Industries, be it IT or health sectors, have been becoming more and more competitive these days. You need to be powered multiple skillsets to thrive in the industry; same goes for the physicians. Chances are that the physician training for leadership is going to be more advanced and extended. Training of these sorts will considerably improve the population of physician-managers so that the advantages of physician management can be realized much more broadly.

Author bio:

Michele Smith is a health writer in a weekly magazine.  She holds a Master’s degree in physiology. Michele likes to uncover new topics about medical field and enlighten her readers about the tips, remedies, and lifestyle they should embrace to lead a healthy life. Besides writing, Michele is passionate about skiing, hiking and skydiving.