Road to Recovery

In challenging times, leaders must pause, reflect, try to make sense of confusing and potentially contradictory information, and share their observations with others. As physicians, we use our education and training to consider objective data, facts, and processes to assess our patients and deliver care; as leaders, our approach should be no different.

During the past six months, our world has been thrown into chaos; a global pandemic has taken the lives of more than 170,000 people to date in the U.S. and affected others in unmeasurable ways. Healthcare leaders around the world are faced with challenging circumstances in which the medical model has been overwhelmed simply because of volume.

In the United States, where the health system has been characterized by relative abundance, scarcity became the norm and challenged us as physician leaders to attempt to allocate inadequate resources, particularly those that may be lifesaving, such as ventilators and ICU beds. As we look to the public health infrastructure, which has jurisdiction in federal and state emergencies, we have been disappointed.

In a world already frightened, angry, and overwhelmed by the disruption related to the COVID-19 pandemic, the murder of George Floyd ripped the scab off a wound that has been festering for decades. Just as we were coming together as a nation and a people around COVID-19, this act divided us more than ever.

Like recovery from critical illness, our recovery from these events will take a long time. Enduring the pain, regaining function, and recovering to pre-illness status is a difficult road, and one that is made more difficult when support systems are challenged. Those whom we turn to for support are trying to cope with their own circumstances and may become fatigued, burned out, and less resilient over time.

You’ll find the articles in this issue especially timely. A field report describes how physician leaders can prepare for local disasters and how operational interventions, such as leading hospital incident command, securing housing, managing surge, and providing support to employees, helped Sonoma County manage through California’s Kincade fire. A discussion article examines how physician leaders can build and project appropriate organizational resilience during a time of confusion and chaos, such as during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Another discussion article examines the importance of racial and ethnic diversity in healthcare and within the era of value-based reimbursement. Organizations committed to improving racial and ethnic diversity in their leadership ranks are likely to benefit, both clinically and financially.

Finally, a research article that examines the role of patient education and communication in postoperative emergency department visits challenges us to think about the tools we can use to help our patients avoid unnecessary care.

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 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 enjoy hearing stories about relevance of mentorship and the methods you use to ensure that you and your team are well cared for in our demanding careers.