HEALTH CARE REFORM

Health Care Reform

Health Care Reform

Introduction

There is widespread support for the premise that healthcare managers and executives need continuing education and skill development to cope with the challenges in the healthcare industry (Chase, 1994; Nichol, 1990; Roemer, 1996; Sieveking and Wood, 1994; Smith et al., 1994, 1998; Wooden, 1998). Zuckerman's (2000) comments are typical of the discussion in the literature. That is, the dynamic nature of the healthcare industry is particularly challenging and requires advanced executive expertise to survive. Complicating matters is the prospect that the management approaches used by many healthcare organizations continue to lag behind other businesses in similar competitive industries.

Health Care Reform

In this research we report an analysis of comments from healthcare executives from a wide range of healthcare organizations that are helpful in providing insights into the needs of healthcare organizations from the upper-level manager and executive perspective. The comments were obtained as part of a survey which asked upper-level managers and executives to identify skill and knowledge deficiencies among healthcare managers. After completing the survey, the managers and executives were given the opportunity to comment on any topics of concern to them. A total of 67 comments, many of them extensive and insightful, were obtained. In this paper, we review the literature dealing with educational and developmental needs of healthcare managers. Much of this literature is academic in nature which makes for an interesting comparison with the perspective of the management and executive practitioners. We begin by considering the literature.

Why should we single out the healthcare industry and the need for improved education in that industry? There are several important reasons. Internationally, providing healthcare services to the world's population is increasingly problematic. In the USA alone, healthcare represents the largest single industry. Total sales in the USA of approximately $1.2 trillion are larger than all but a handful of countries' total economies. The industry faces environmental challenges far greater than those confronting most other industries. Both technology and regulatory changes have an almost immediate impact on healthcare organizations in ways that often require radical changes. Continued consolidation among healthcare organizations has created a complex, rapidly changing competitive environment. Finally, healthcare managers must balance quality of life issues with bottom line profits in a way that no other managers are required to do.

What skills do healthcare managers and executives actually need to be effective in meeting the challenges confronting the field? It may be entirely possible that no one knows for sure. That is at least implied by a recent article in the magazine Modern Healthcare, where Jaklevic (2000) points out that the current system for educating and developing healthcare managers may be flawed. Rundle (2000) suggests that the healthcare industry is falling behind in issues of management, particularly with respect to adopting and managing automation and technology. The implication is that managers and executives in healthcare, compared with their counterparts in other industries, do not have the business knowledge and skills to utilize fully the available automation and ...