Change management and influence will define the next generation of effective physician leaders, Andy Anderson, MD, executive vice president and chief medical and quality officer of West Orange, N.J.-based RWJBarnabas Health, said.
While physician leaders must be grounded across operations, finance, human resources and legal, the differentiating competency for the future is the ability to drive change through others, he said on Becker’s “Clinical Leadership Podcast.”
“Being at the table as decisions are made on prioritization, goal setting and clinical initiatives is critical,” Dr. Anderson said. “That means being effective as a change agent, and some of that comes down to basic communication and listening skills, understanding organizational behavior, and learning how to drive change through things like PDSA cycles and continuous quality improvement — or understanding how to pilot something and then scale it across the system. These are really important pieces of being an effective leader.”
Dr. Anderson said close connection between the CMO, chief information officer and chief medical information officer is essential — particularly around EHR optimization and reducing clinician friction.
“The CMO needs to understand change management, listen carefully to issues as they arise, look ahead at how the EHR can best be utilized, and work to solve pain points and reduce friction for users,” he said. “It’s also important to stay connected to the chief information officer — the architecture, the data, and the overall IT structure all need to be understood, and there has to be ongoing conversation about what’s possible and how quickly things can be implemented.”
For CEOs looking to build a durable clinical leadership bench, Dr. Anderson recommended that physician leaders have a genuine seat at the strategy table, backed by succession planning and deliberate investment in developing leaders from within the organization.
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