The Anatomy Of Healthcare Leadership: A Mind For Technology

"Dr. William Kissick, famous for shaping the Medicare policies of the 1960s, became known later in his life for illustrating a healthcare dilemma he dubbed the iron triangle.

With the points of the triangle representing cost, access and quality, Kissick concluded that no healthcare system in the world can deliver excellence in all three. In his view, success in two areas inevitably came at the sacrifice of the third. This left healthcare leaders with a difficult choice: which two?

The dilemma of the iron triangle, first introduced in 1994, was an inescapable truth in American healthcare throughout the 20th century. Today, however, our nation possesses the tools and knowledge needed to overcome all three obstacles, simultaneously.

What’s missing is effective leadership.

This article—the third in a series that includes “Brain, Heart, Spine: The Anatomy Of Healthcare Leadership”—puts the anatomy of leadership in action. It explains how healthcare leaders can apply logic and imagination (the brain), passion and empathy (the heart), along with courage and persistence (the spine) toward the goal of achieving what was once impossible.

Assuming the head of a medical group or health system wanted to break the iron triangle—delivering simultaneous improvements in quality, access and costs—how might the leader think through the challenge?..." Lire la suite