Strategic Health Leadership and Management Report: Article Critique

This report presents a critical analysis of an article focused on strategic health leadership and management, specifically addressing the implementation and sustainability of transformational change in healthcare through clinical process redesign. The report examines the author's central arguments, conclusions, and supporting evidence, evaluating the clarity and validity of the presented information. It identifies any gaps in the article's information or argumentation, offering alternative perspectives. Furthermore, the report integrates the author's conclusions to discuss the implications for health leadership and management, highlighting key factors for successful organizational change such as senior executive leadership, clinical leadership, and a focus on the patient journey. The analysis also critiques the study's limitations, such as the scope of the data and the depth of analysis, while offering insights into how leadership theories can be applied in healthcare settings. The report concludes with a summary of the findings and their significance in the context of health leadership and management, emphasizing the importance of continuous improvement, sustainability, and data-driven decision-making in healthcare organizations.

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STRATEGIC HEALTH LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT
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Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Discussion........................................................................................................................................3
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................7
References........................................................................................................................................8

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Introduction
Leadership effectiveness can be observed through the success or failure of an organization, as
leaders are majorly responsible for these factors. Leadership plays a vital role in the healthcare
sector as well, that will be discussed in detail in the report further. The leadership responsibility
is to provide direction to the organization, alignment and ensuring commitment among the
organization within teams (Manning and Curtis 2015). The direction makes it sure that the
people are putting their efforts towards a common goal and right direction and able to achieve
individual and organizational goals. The major goals for a healthcare centre would be to provide
best quality services to the patients. There have been various studies conducted over the
implications of leadership in a healthcare organization; one of the articles would be critically
analyzed in the report.

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Discussion
Research “Implementing and sustaining transformational change in health care: lessons learned
about clinical process redesign,” discuss regarding the redesigning of clinical process and its
implication over the healthcare services with its tangible benefit to staff and patients (MCGrath,
et al. 2008). Article’s central arguments included the principles implied in redesigning clinical
process are not original; they have already been introduced and used in various industries
through substantial expansions for several years, nevertheless this has lately been familiarised by
health care industry. According to the authors the experience through redesign have provided
with major learning related to critical factors responsible for successfully implementing and
working with the process in the setting of health care organizations (Nair 2018). The study found
out that the key factors for the successful organization are senior executive’s leadership, clinical
leadership, focus over the journey of a patient, problem solving, accessing data, strong
performance management, ambitious targets and a procedure for continuous improvement. The
authors conducted a detailed analysis of these identified elements while considering qualitative
data. However, it can be said that supporting evidence does not seem to be very strong and valid.
For instance, in the case of analyzing senior executive leadership, the experience with FMC has
been considered for analysis. The research has considered various examples for the studies from
health care services (Miner 2015). For instance, while studying targets and framework and data
accessibility it was found that the immediate access has considered beneficial for the
organization like web-based technology which provides real-time information found to be
effective for the managers and senior executives in Sydney West Area Health Service in New
South Wales. They believe that an investment in the data access technology has resulted in

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increased service quality. The study has considered the examples from flinders medical center
while implementing process redesign (Losch 2016). The arguments and central concluding by
the author was quite clearly stated and it can be said that the author was quite specific while
focusing over a small argument that was conducted over the six elements of success in the
organization of healthcare. Nevertheless, it was observed that the evidence for the study was not
through qualitative data collection; instead, it was very descriptive and could be vague (Jing
2016).
The expectation from the study was a bit different and it was observed that the information was
lack. It was expected that the study would have considered a broader aspect than it does consider.
The limitation of the study was the limit of the aspects to six elements only. Other factors could
have an effect on the implication of these elements that must be considered. Moreover, the data
collection was expected to be primary and secondary as well and the qualitative data analysis
was missing. Moreover, the leadership in the clinical process could have considered in more
detail and could have implemented various leadership theories in healthcare organization to
study like the leadership style could have influenced differently in the organization. The example
that has been taken by the author of F M C, could have evaluated on the basis of primary data
collected from the organization and could have provided as the evidence for the same. In
addition to this, the author could have considered the role of technological change and
advancement while discussing the continuous improvement, which was found to be limited for
research (Hill 2016).

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The author’s major discussion and its implication have included research over the clinical
process redesign project undertaken by finders medical care and NWS health since 2003 and
2004 respectively in South Australia. The author found out the principles responsible for
successful sustainability that has emerged from the experience in these centers where the
evidence has been supported by similar reforms (Page 2014). The implication over the health
leadership and management included the leadership by senior management while observing the
involvement of senior management and chief executive requirement in the project. Senior
management has to agree over the service delivery standards and implement the change
procedure. This necessitates administration to involve and challenge employees with “stretch
goals,” set the constraints for satisfactory solutions, guarantees strategies are applied surrounded
by established budgets, and timeframes, evaluate performance, and recompense success for the
staff. Considering New South Wales, consistent appointments to clinical redesign spots by the
Minister for Health and the Director-General of Health of NSW and found it to be a prevailing
persuader for employees, as these appointments specify that clinical process redesign is at
highest importance. In addition, FMC establishes it valued to require senior clinicians and
managers to track journeys of the patient and medical work. This has facilitated redesign from
considering it a project and instead applied every day in the center (Zacher and Rosing 2015).
Another major implication of the focus over the journey of the patient includes the classification
of patients group not on the basis of diseases but according to the journey like the emergency
cases, frail older patients. This is to understand the priority and demand of the patients and assist
in simplifying the process of redesign. This also helps the organization communicate these
journey steps to the patients easily, make the process easy to teach recruited employees, and
diminish the risk of error. Considering the sustainability was found to be the most challenging

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aspect of an organization and phase of clinical process redesign after project implementation.
This involves continuous improvement in the system to sustain and rapid reviewing and
monitoring the enhancement of health service delivery. The research included the cycle of
sustainability that includes standard work, maintenance, and continuous improvement. While
analyzing the sustainability at flinders medical center, it was found that the standard process was
created for acknowledging the discharge summaries and they were helpful for taking it as the
basis for orientation of intern. For continuous improvement, FMC considered the consultants,
doctors, redesign team and department heads used to meet up for lunch every two weeks to
monitor and review the performance considering the redesign work, analyze problems, and
enhance the opportunities. The purpose of the meeting also includes the identification of
mechanism on a regular basis and problems faced by clinicians group facing every day
(MCGrath, et al. 2008).
The study concluded that Clinical process redesign embraces abundant potential. It has
previously established and found out to be an influential tool for refining the organizations that
reinforce healthcare service delivery. The study delivered benefits for staff and patients by
improving access and enduring flow, and cumulative care, while also enhancing the experience
and outcomes regarding health for patients (Hautala 2016).
Considering this study, it could be used while applying the process in healthcare centres and
leadership in healthcare. The elements that an organization needs to consider for being
successful. However, the study could have been more analytical and considered broader aspect
of leadership in healthcare (Jesus 2015).

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Conclusion
From the report, it can be concluded that Leadership plays a vital role in the healthcare sector as
well and the leadership responsibility is to provide direction to the organization, alignment and
ensuring commitment among the organization within teams. There have been plenty of
publications with regard to leadership in healthcare. The report discussed “Implementing and
sustaining transformational change in health care: lessons learned about clinical process
redesign.” The research was conducted over the implication of clinical process redesign on
healthcare leadership and management through considering NSW and evidence as an
organization case in the article. It was observed that the study’s evidence from two organizations
was relevant but could have enhanced the viability of the research if quantitative data has been
collected and presented.
The study found out that the key factors for the successful organization are senior executive’s
leadership, clinical leadership, focus over the journey of a patient, problem solving, accessing
data, strong performance management, ambitious targets and a procedure for continuous
improvement. The authors conducted a detailed analysis of these identified elements while
considering qualitative data. The study delivered benefits for staff and patients by improving
access and enduring flow, and cumulative care, while also enhancing the experience and
outcomes regarding health for patients. Some of the limitations to the study observed were the
analytical data use that is use of qualitative research. The study could have been taken in more
depth.

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References
Hautala, T.M. “The relationship between personality and transformational leadership.” Journal
of Management Development 25, no. 8 (2016): 777-794.
Hill, N.S. “ Empowering leadership and effective collaboration in geographically dispersed
teams.” Personnel Psychology 69, no. 1 (2016): 159-198.
Jesus, D. “"The role of knowledge-oriented leadership in knowledge management practices and
innovation.".” Journal of Business Research 68, no. 2 (2015): 360-370.
Jing, F.F. “Missing links in understanding the relationship between leadership and organizational
performance.” The International Business & Economics Research Journal 15, no. 3
(2016): 107.
Losch, S. “Comparing the effectiveness of individual coaching, self-coaching, and group
training: How leadership makes the difference.” Frontiers in psychology 7 (2016): 629.
Manning, G, and K Curtis . The Art of Leadership 5th ed. . Sydney: McGraw Hill, 2015.
MCGrath, K.M, D.M Bennett, N.J Lyons, D Ben-Tovin, and T.J Connell. “Implementing and
sustaining transformational change in health care: lessons learnt about clinical process
redesign.” Medical Journal of Australia 188, no. 6 (2008): 32.
Miner, J.B. Organizational behavior 1: Essential theories of motivation and leadership. London:
Routledge, 2015.
Nair, A. “Impact of network size and demand on cost performance for high-and low-quality
healthcare service organizations.” International Journal of Operations & Production

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Management 38, no. 1 (2018): 109-128.
Page, T. “ Notions of innovation in healthcare services and products.” International Journal of
Innovation and Sustainable Development 8, no. 3 (2014): 217.
Zacher, H, and K Rosing. “Ambidextrous leadership and team innovation.” Leadership &
Organization Development Journal, 2015: 54.