Introduction
The ultimate authority of whether an organization succeeds or fails is the leadership in the healthcare sector. The safety and experience of the patient must be considered while making decisions. A company that prioritizes procedural perfection but accepts average service will suffer mediocre patient outcomes. An organization that inspires, motivates, and rewards employees is created, maintained, and directed by leadership. Staff participation thus raises the standard of patient care over the whole range of operations.
Healthcare Leadership and Patient Experience
Patient experience is a critical issue for any healthcare facility. It starts with their ability to schedule an appointment when necessary, continues through the session itself, and culminates with the creation of a long-term care strategy. Customer service at check-in, wait periods in the waiting area and screening room, and logistics all have an impact on their satisfaction (Lee, 2019). However, a patient’s perception of the attending doctor’s communication skills may be the single most significant aspect of their experience.
Providing top-notch clinical treatment is only one aspect of improving patient care. This calls for attention to every element of how patients interact with one another in the clinic, including their emotional needs, physical comfort, and comprehension of what is happening. The aim of enhancing the level of patient care is to increase population health, provide better patient care, and lower treatment costs per patient (Alilyyani et al., 2018). The first of these, raising the standard of patient care, is advantageous to both clinics that treat patients and their clients. Better clinical and commercial outcomes follow from better patient experiences. Patients can pick their healthcare provider based not just on clinical outcomes but also on whether their doctor or mental health professional gives empathetic, patient-centered care as patient competition for patients rises.
In these settings, the role of a senior leader in a healthcare facility is vital. Leadership in health care must seek to close the gap between customer expectations and service experience (Alilyyani et al., 2018). Hospitals will succeed most by boosting referrals, enhancing employee retention, and cultivating customer loyalty when their service delivery methods are most closely aligned with consumer expectations (Bokhour et al., 2018). Healthcare professionals have a duty to offer patients excellent customer service throughout the whole healthcare process in addition to high-quality medical outcomes.
Healthcare systems are under increased pressure to develop methods to become more patient-centered as patient demand for better treatment and greater engagement in their healthcare grows. If patient experience is not a strategic priority for an organization, it can cause serious repercussions. This will result in patient dissatisfaction and lower the quality of operations, which can lead to overall organizational failure. It is vital to build a culture where the customer experience is viewed as the hospital’s ultimate aim in order to enhance the quality of patient treatment (Bokhour et al., 2018). The hospital is more easily available to customers thanks to the connection between patients and healthcare providers, information openness, and patient engagement. A responsive atmosphere is fostered by an accessible hospital, and this environment leads to better outcomes, increased customer value, and a superior patient experience.
The culture that directs staff conduct sets the stage for the patient experience. If the expectations of the patient are not met, this will affect the organizational culture in the first place. Clinical and frontline personnel exhibit organizational principles in their encounters with patients. At the same time, management establishes standards for the hospital by defining organizational culture and rules of behavior for workers (Bokhour et al., 2018). To achieve successful results, hospital executives must concentrate on developing an excellent culture. It should be institutionalized throughout the company through repeatable procedures that foster an excellence-oriented culture that can vary with the needs of the organization’s leadership and workforce.
Another area is transparency in information, which is essential for enhancing patient engagement in the process of receiving medical care. By leveraging the Internet to access data and ensuring that personnel effectively explain pertinent information to patients in person within hospitals, organizations may encourage information openness both inside and outside of facilities. Consumers should have access to clear information on comparable statistics, such as hospital costs and qualitative results (Alilyyani et al., 2018). When patient satisfaction is not a priority, it can affect this organization’s domain. Leadership has to ensure that hospitals give patients precise information, such as records, tests, and alternatives, for clear medical decisions. Before a patient even steps foot inside a hospital, public information might let them know what to anticipate from the establishment.
Service Line Management
One of the key determinants of the patients’ positive experience is line management. The service line concept brings together individuals from many fields and specialties who have as their shared objective the provision of a full range of therapeutic services in order to accomplish a certain clinical outcome. Since the early 1980s, several hospitals in the US have implemented clinical care lines, which now became common practice (Hunter, 2021). Service lines provide several organizational benefits, which are many. If implemented properly, service lines can produce favorable financial outcomes and cost-effectiveness. Successful multidisciplinary cooperation is built on shared ownership, trust, and objectives. The technology also makes it possible to collect financial and clinical result data more precisely, which holds management responsible.
The service line model recommends a change from the traditional vertical hierarchical management style to a horizontal command management style. In it, leaders acknowledge that those who carry out the actual tasks are the organization’s driving forces and create a support system around the service point (Votova et al., 2019). For service lines to be genuinely effective, their leaders must have the power to make strategic choices that can actually impact how much things cost and how well they are made. The CEO of that specific healthcare services unit is typically regarded as the leader. The leader’s job is to make it possible for the staff members who really deliver care and service to take part in the service line’s management decisions.
To successfully lead a service line, two resources are required. Prioritizing focused strategic objectives with realistic time periods, targets, and accountability is crucial for service executives. In addition, it will be crucial to divide long-term objectives into manageable short-term ones (Hunter, 2021). The second important resource is culture. The service line manager will endeavor to eliminate silos and establish a culture of cooperation and common procedures, which will eventually improve service (Bokhour et al., 2018). Patient satisfaction will increase, and organizational success will be bolstered by this.
To achieve successful implementation of service lines, it is necessary to consider the dyad management model. The dyad leadership approach in healthcare is best defined as pairing a doctor with a non-physician administrator to oversee strategic and tactical decisions. This governance structure may be adopted at every level of the company with appropriate planning and study. The clinical vision of the organization or specialty area is primarily the dyad’s responsibility, which includes physicians and administrators who carry out that vision (Hunter, 2021). Adopting a dyad management model necessitates cultural shifts in the healthcare facility. This will be reflected in the need for an interpersonal, emotional, and social atmosphere in the hospital, which benefits clinical care and administrative procedures. To ensure that management is adequately distributed across the spectrum of care and at a level commensurate with the size, scope, and complexity of the program, the architecture of the leadership model should be carefully evaluated (Hunter, 2021). This model can reveal the advantages of leading service lines. The leadership, which includes administrators and physicians, will effectively articulate the vision for the future of healthcare. On the other side, the dyad leadership model shows that it can theoretically lead to the fragmentation of the process, which will harm organizational success.
Organizational Quality Improvement and Leadership
Organizational quality improvement is a crucial area for positive patient experience and organizational success. A hospital atmosphere that is compassionate, patient-centered, and focused on quality of care and service is created by offering prompt, responsive care. The physical and emotional factors that an organization combines with clinical and technology methods to produce the hospital environment. Quality management in this setting plays an essential role, while leaders are responsible for ensuring and maintaining this quality (Votova et al., 2019). Consumers place a high value on interpersonal relationships and effective healthcare, but physical health also has a big impact on how customers are treated. Clean, private, cutting-edge, and easily accessible patient care areas are a way for hospitals to raise the quality of care provided.
Hospitals may show efficiency by participating in care coordination programs. Patients get the impression that the hospital is committed to taking care of them when they take a well-planned tour of the facility and observe staff members collaborating across departments. In these settings, leadership is responsible for identifying such opportunities as well as implementing improvement cycles (Votova et al., 2019). From the cultural point of view, a patient-centered care model that prioritizes patient desire, comfort, outcomes, and the total value has to be ensured by leadership (Lee, 2019). In addition to it, it should be strengthened by positive staff interactions, high-quality results, and hospitals that are responsive to patient needs.
Senior executives can engage with frontline employees during leadership rounding to talk about patient safety concerns and come up with new ideas for quality improvement. It is among the most crucial ways to show dedication to patient safety. The ability to get a sense of what is actually happening in the hospital is one of the main advantages of rounding. Boosting employee fidelity to the company and its principles contributes to changing the hospital’s culture (Lee, 2019). Staff members acknowledge and strive for leadership commitment when hospital leaders are consistent and follow up on concerns that are highlighted.
Conclusion
To conclude, the critical role of leadership is to direct resources, shape the vision, and empower staff members across the hospital to have a good influence on patients. When hospitals concentrate their efforts on helping patients, the organization attracts highly skilled employees, makes a significant contribution to an overarching objective, and completes the primary function of service: meeting the requirements and preferences of the patient. Essentially, it will lead to the creation of patient-centered culture, where staff and leadership ensure the best care coordination.
References
Alilyyani, B., Wong, C. A., & Cummings, G. (2018). Antecedents, mediators, and outcomes of authentic leadership in healthcare: A systematic review. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 83(1), 34-64.
Bokhour, B. G., Fix, G. M., Mueller, N. M., Barker, A. M., Lavela, S. L., Hill, J. N. & Lukas, C. V. (2018). How can healthcare organizations implement patient-centered care? Examining a large-scale cultural transformation. BMC Health Services Research, 18(1), 1-11.
Hunter, R. (2021). Framing the Issues in Effective Service Line Development. Frontiers of Health Services Management, 37(3), 35-40.
Lee, D. (2019). A model for designing healthcare service based on the patient experience. International Journal of Healthcare Management, 12(3), 180-188.
Votova, K., Laberge, A. M., Grimshaw, J. M., & Wilson, B. (2019). Implementation science as a leadership capability to improve patient outcomes and value in healthcare. Healthcare Management Forum, 32(6), 307-312.