With calls to improve physician leadership skills, recent research from the U.K. concludes that more clinician participation on boards can improve overall hospital performance, work and organization professor Ian Kirkpatrick and accounting and finance lecturer Gianluca Veronesi, both at Leeds University Business School, wrote in The Guardian today.
The U.K. has one of the lowest proportions of clinically qualified managers of any healthcare system--58 percent compared to 74 percent in the United States--and could fall short in chief executive appointments, they wrote. The researchers at Leeds University Business School found that boards with the highest shares of clinicians (27 percent) achieved the best ratings, including lower patient mortality rates and higher patient satisfaction scores. Although the study authors couldn't pinpoint why, they noted physician expertise and credibility could help hospitals make decisions and the likelihood they will be implemented. Article