The Growing Demand for Cross-Functional Leadership in Health Careers
It’s kind of simple when you think about it. People don’t live in segmented chunks. They aren’t a different person when they’re at work from when they’re at home. Nor, for that matter, is their body insulated from the many and varied experiences of a single day.
Behaviors are connected. Health results are connected. Complications are connected. And so when someone shows up in the hospital, they might need to be treated for one specific thing. But by looking at other areas of their life – family history, other health conditions, activity levels, environmental considerations – care providers can have a much more robust understanding of what’s going on.
That’s the basic premise behind cross-functional leadership. People have a wide range of complicated health needs. A good hospital can recognise that and address them accordingly. In this article, we take a deeper look at what cross-functional leadership is and why it is important.
Cross-Functional Leadership Defined
As we hinted at in the introduction, cross-functional leadership is simply the practice of uniting people from different departments within a healthcare system. And again, the premise is that even though care is very specialised, it’s also all connected.
What happens in a person’s kidneys can have ramifications for the rest of their body, and so on.
Cross-functional leadership acknowledges this and focuses on decision-making that’s good for patients in a more comprehensive way.
What Are the Benefits?
The next few headings will take a look at the benefits of cross-functional leadership when it is done right.
Improved Patient Satisfaction
That’s a major benefit not to be undervalued. When patients feel good about their healthcare experiences, they have an easier time committing to whatever program they’re on. They also tend to respond better overall to their care. A little optimism can go a long way when your back is against the wall.
Hospitals that emphasise cross-functional leadership are contributing to more comfortable and confident patients.
Reduced Medical Errors
Physicians just do better when they’re taking a more comprehensive look at their patients. The more they know, the better informed their choices will be. It is hard to coordinate many different departments for a single patient, particularly when there are no obvious risk factors that make it obvious this is needed.
However, the more robust the care, the better it will ultimately be received.
More Efficient Care
Really good comprehensive medical care practices tend to have long-term gains in efficiency, even if they require a lot of logistical effort up front. Patients who are receiving really comprehensive support are probably going to respond more quickly to their care.
This not only means a better chance of a positive outcome, but it also can reduce their hospital stay and accelerate the recovery timeline. These things save the patient an enormous amount of time and money.
They are actually also more financially efficient for the hospital as well. Without getting too far into the weeds, healthcare organisations typically make the most money from one to two night stays, with diminishing returns the longer the patient is in the hospital.
So a money-saving administrator weighing the benefits of cross-functional leadership might ultimately conclude, independent of any other benefits, that it’s worthwhile financially as well as practically.
Improved Staff Morale
There’s an old story about early car factories. It said that executives at car manufacturers found that efficiency improved when workers could interact with all parts of the car, not just turn a million bolts per day. Workers could contribute effectively to different components of the developmental process.
This sounds a little counterintuitive. How could it possibly be more efficient to train one person to do everything than it would be to teach them how to do one simple thing really well? At least in theory, variety improves worker morale, which boosts both efficiency and retention. So keeping people engaged on the job is, in and of itself, a good reason to make the change.
And in the healthcare setting, it can make an enormous difference in several different ways. Doctors and nurses participating in cross-departmental care are not exactly the modern-day equivalent of an early twentieth-century car factory employee, but they’re experiencing a similar professional benefit.
They’re involved in more aspects of the patient’s care. They get to see them through their journey in a more comprehensive and rewarding way. This can boost morale and improve retention, and these things can, in turn, significantly increase efficiency and reduce workplace bottlenecks.
How Can You Participate in Cross-Functional Healthcare Leadership?
If you are interested in healthcare from a more administrative or strategic vantage point, there are different routes you can take. There are very literal master’s degrees in organisational leadership that will give you the skills needed to think about collaboration in a more strategic and robust way.
Public health leadership degrees can also help you get the credentials required for this work. It’s a competitive professional landscape, but also one with considerable opportunity. Simply put, the world never stops needing healthcare leaders.
Most people do start at the professional bottom. Healthcare leadership or administration actually is more corporate in its structure than patient-side care. This means that while you might start with modest responsibilities, you can expect promotions and more complicated work as time goes on.
Few kids tell their parents, “Mommy, Daddy, when I grow up, I want to be an early pioneer of cross-functional leadership in our local healthcare system.” But that’s to the world’s loss. This is an important job that makes a real difference. Figure out if it’s right for you.
