Leadership and front-line clinicians

Contemporary health care systems face increasing strain due to a variety of factors, including the growing need for care and its associated rising costs. This has motivated extensive and ongoing efforts to reform health care. The pressure to reform the health care system has led to the pursuit of new, more effective models of health care delivery. Unfortunately, these new models do not perform to their full potentials. If these new models are to achieve their intended outcomes, it will require leadership from the front-line clinicians who primarily work in patient care. Although these front-line clinicians may not see themselves as leaders and may not even have much interest in leading, their leadership is nonetheless crucial for successful health care reform. This paper examines how a physician or other clinician can exercise leadership in health care even without having a formal leadership title or role.