The COVID-19 pandemic created countless challenges for healthcare providers, but some silver-linings-minded leaders believe the health crisis also accelerated innovation in quality and safety. In a March/April 2021 Healthcare Executive column, Richard Brant, MD, CPHQ, medical director for quality and patient safety at West Virginia University Medicine Children’s Hospital, expressed his belief that the heightened activity catalyzed by the pandemic will ultimately help organizations move along the journey to zero harm. Between the momentum many organizations have created toward improving safety ..read more

By Stephan Davis, DNP, FACHE “Healthcare leadership is more than a profession, it’s a calling.” It’s a simple but profound statement that kicked off the 2021 ACHE Congress on Healthcare Leadership. As a healthcare leader and educator of color, I feel called in this moment to respond to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services’ Office of Minority Health’s request that individuals and communities share the reasons why they are #VaccineReady, the theme for this year’s National Minority Health Month.   I feel fortunate to share I am among the millions of Americans who are fully vacc ..read more

Deborah J. Bowen, FACHE, CAE Successful strategies to help leaders stay focused on building key workforce skills. Actively addressing resilience has never been more important, and for good reason. The rate of burnout among physicians was over 40% prior to COVID-19, according to a Cleveland Clinic Journal of Medicine article: “Burnout of healthcare providers during COVID-19.” And, workplace stress is estimated to cost the U.S. economy more than $500 billion each year, according to the American Psychological Association. Though the issue is not new, the ongoing demands of the pandemic only ..read more

By Lily J. Henson, MD, FACHE Today is National Doctors’ Day, and I want to note the pride I have in being a physician. Over the past year, as we learned how to treat this novel coronavirus, I have watched my physician colleagues lead the fight by fearlessly taking care of patients despite the risk to themselves and, potentially, their loved ones. They spent the last 12 months hungrily reading and assimilating new knowledge about managing the disease as information became available so they could be providing the best care possible as our understanding of the disease evolved. Some of the mo ..read more

The announcement last month that Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos would step down from the e-commerce business was the latest in a tumultuous year of global CEO turnover. Whether due to the pandemic crisis, the resulting financial recession or previous, planned departures, the past 12 months have been some of the most volatile for corporate executive leadership. ACHE’s own research found CEO turnover holding steady for several years prior to the pandemic, however, recent announcements show that perhaps corporate trends are seeping into the healthcare industry. Retirements, mergers and acquisitions, pande ..read more

By Anne McCune This March brings a number of somber remembrances. We reflect on 500,000 lives lost in the worst pandemic in American history, with Black, Latino and Indigenous Americans suffering at least double the death rate compared to whites. We remember Manuel Ellis, a Black man killed in police custody whose last words—I can’t breathe—became an international rallying cry for social justice after the death of George Floyd. We recognize International Women’s Day as we grapple with the SheCession that has pushed more than 2.5 million women out of the workforce and threatens to undermine dec ..read more

One of the many important lessons for healthcare leaders to take away from 2020 is that leader-to-leader communication and collaboration can help individuals and organizations thrive, even in the most challenging of circumstances. At the 2021 Congress on Healthcare Leadership, March 22–25, attendees will have the opportunity to attend virtual sessions—like the Leadership Insights sessions listed below—to gain tips and strategies on how to succeed from healthcare leaders and innovators. Each session marked with an asterisk (*) below qualifies for 1 ACHE Face-to-Face Education credit. Attendees ..read more

By Peggy Davis Harris, MHA, FACHE, SPHR As we recognize Black History Month in 2021, I can’t help but reflect on the significant advances people of African descent have made in the United States, especially given that not until 2107 will African Americans hit the milestone of living more years in the United States as full citizens versus living as enslaved humans. For the majority of adults alive today, 2107 will not happen in their lifetime. That should give us all reason to pause and reflect. Black History is American History. For many Americans, Black History Month has become a time to cele ..read more

By Sarah Freymann Fontenot, JD The beginning of a new administration always brings apprehension and anticipation. How dramatically will the President change the trajectory of the country, if at all? Who will take leadership roles in the Executive Branch, and will Congress enhance or defeat the new President’s priorities? As I wrote on Jan. 27, President Biden taking on the COVID-19 pandemic is Job #1, protecting and strengthening the Affordable Care Act is a close second priority. The public’s attention will center on those two directives in 2021—what issues off the media grid will be of equal ..read more

By MAJ Christopher L. Armijo, FACHE, and Kimberly Tansey, DPT, FACHE With every new international health crisis—be it Ebola, Zika or COVID-19—comes an infodemic. The World Health Organization defines an infodemic as an “overabundance of information, some accurate and some not, that occurs during an epidemic. It can lead to confusion and ultimately mistrust in governments and public health response.” We all saw how an overabundance of information (and misinformation) about COVID-19 led to confusion, conspiracies and chaos toward the beginning of the pandemic. Even though many hospitals and heal ..read more