Leading by Providing Comfort in Unsettling Times

Since the last issue of the PLJ, our lives and our work have been transformed. The importance of a physician leader’s role has grown significantly since the COVID-19 pandemic took hold around the world. While the fundamental competencies of our work continue to play out in examples like quality, information technology, medical staff relationship building, and value-based care, there is added pressure, both clinically and financially, for our patients, health systems, communities, and colleagues that creates new work to be accomplished.

People are anxious and afraid of what COVID-19 means for them, their family, and their survival in both a literal and a figurative sense. As physician leaders, we can provide comfort that helps people thoughtfully and methodically move through this crisis.

The comfort we provide can be seen in the expertise we offer about virus transmissibility. The comfort can be seen in recommendations we make regarding when to re-start elective surgeries. The comfort comes from a place of providing confidence that tomorrow will be better than today. And, the comfort comes from holding the hand of a dying patient and telling him it’s going to be OK — especially if his family is not able to be there.

The ways and methods that we choose to comfort are so fundamental to our work as physician leaders that it has become the newest competency that needs to be added to our repertoire. We look forward to hearing more about the ways you and your colleagues are demonstrating this comfort in submissions to the PLJ. Please feel free to share a field report about your work and how you are driving improved outcomes for our patients even in the context of COVID-19.

In this issue, we have included a field report examining a medium-sized hospital’s transformation of its Medical Staff Quality Committee. This article thoroughly describes the former and current states of the committee’s quality review process and the resulting improvements in transparency, mutual understanding, and a culture of safety and justice.

Another field report describes the Ambulatory Surgery Strategy for Value-Based Care and the need to incorporate ambulatory surgery into a complex system of care that delivers improved outcomes while controlling costs.

Finally, you will find a research article that examines the importance of preparing future physician leaders in management, strategy, policy, and operations of healthcare delivery.

As the official journal of the American Association for Physician Leaders, the Physician Leadership Journal provides a platform for you to share your research with members throughout the world. Now is the time to use this platform to help inspire change in healthcare and to improve the way we deliver care to the patients, families, and communities we serve.

Send me your thoughts at editor@physicianleaders.org. We would enjoy hearing stories about relevance of mentorship and the methods you use to ensure you and your team are well cared for in our demanding careers.