Background: Hospital medicine practitioners are uniquely positioned to understand the complexities and intricacies of inpatient care and hospital operations. Given the expertise of inpatient providers, hospitalists are often leaders of hospital-based committees and becoming more integral in executive level hospital leadership. As the field of hospital medicine continues to grow, there needs to be more direct education and training in leadership development.
Purpose: Our health care organization recognized the need for investment in leadership skills for hospital medicine providers and promoted the development of a Hospital Medicine Leadership Excellence and Development Program (LEAD). We built a longitudinal program where hospitalist providers spend 6 days over a 7-month span with a curriculum focused on hospital-based leadership skills. This track is designed for emerging leaders of hospitalist groups, committee leaders, and for those interested in advancing their professional development with goals towards leadership roles.
Description: Our institution is committed to providing professional development for emerging leaders. This institution has over 300 hospital medicine providers. Current leaders often are put into positions without adequate training in skills that are essential to be successful as a leader. Physicians and Advanced Care Practitioners were able to apply. The cohort consisted of providers across our large health care network, thus also allowing for cross collaboration and networking. This institution highlighted the need for education around topics including Social and Emotional Intelligence, components of Change Management, Health Care Finance, Principles in Risk Management, Recruitment and Engagement, as well as Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion to name a few. The first cohort was focused solely on hospitalist providers and given the success, the second cohort is multidisciplinary including emerging leaders from Critical Care Medicine and Emergency Medicine. Participants who complete this program are more often appointed leadership positions within the organization. The interest for this program exceeded expectations making it competitive for applicants. Furthermore, feedback from participants is overwhelmingly strong, indicating this program fills a need for continued professional development.
Conclusions: Hospital Medicine providers have extensive understanding of hospital operations and are valuable leaders. Investment in leadership training is highly valued within our hospital medicine group and those who completed the program were more likely to have a leadership role within the organization.