Julian I
Abstract
This paper will focus on how effective Leadership can influence policy and change in the United States healthcare system. The implementation of new policy, program, and institutional change is often meant to improve the quality of the nation's ever-changing healthcare system. Several journal articles and texts have been selected particularly with a focus on leadership strategies to improve the quality of healthcare, and leadership’s ability to influence implemented changes to the system. The question proposed is; does leadership encourage and influence both public and private initiatives that measure health outcomes, and organize systems to improve health services when new policies, programs, and institutional changes occur? The issues summarized in this paper are supported by scholarly journals and texts that offer several perspectives, including real life examples that will illustrate my argument that effective leadership can impact changes within the healthcare system.
Our great nation has had a significant history of leadership both transactional and transformational throughout its existence. I venture to say that leadership is not just about performing a job: It’s about making a difference. When considering changes to healthcare, whether it is institutional, program, or policy, the importance and ability for leadership to put systems in place that strategically fulfill the goals and measures identified are extremely important. For example, with the passage of the Affordable Care Act, the future of healthcare has become more defined as noted by Baldwin; The Circle Way: A Leader in Every Chair (2011), “To serve as effective leaders, we must understand the context for our leadership roles–namely, the changing health care system and particularly, the impact of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that President Obama signed into law on March of 2010. The Affordable Care Act
References: 1. Baldwin, C. and Linnea, A. The Circle Way: A Leader in Every Chair. San Francisco: Berritt- Koehler Publishers, 2010. 2. Gladwell M. The Tipping Point. How Little Things Can Make A Big Difference. Boston, Little Brown and Company, 2000. 3. Heifetz, R.A Leadership Without Easy Answers. Cambridge, Ma: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2012. 4. Heifetz, R.A and Linsky, A. Leadership on the Line: Staying Alive Though the Dangers of Leading. Boston: Harvard Business Review Press, 2012. 5. Hertsgaard, M. Healthcare: Living Through the Next Fifty Years. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 2011. 6. Zimmerman, C. Leadership in an Evolving Health Care System. New York: Free Press, 2011