The Health Research and Development Institute—which was concerned about the supply of qualified leadership for the country's most complex health systems as well industry performance—formed a coalition with the Association of University Programs in Health Administration and the Accrediting Commission on Education for Health Services Administration to catalyze fundamental, field-wide change in the way health care managers and leaders are trained and evaluated.

The work led to the establishment of the National Center for Healthcare Leadership and its development of projects for the field. A wide range of collaborating organizations and subcontractors participated in the planning and founding of the national center. (See Appendix 1 for a list.)

Key Results

Project staff from the National Center for Healthcare Leadership:

• Created the Health Leadership Competency Model, which defines the competencies required for outstanding health care leadership for the future. The model guides the design and development of the National Center for Healthcare Leadership's educational interventions and assessment initiatives.
• Created the Advanced Leadership Development Program, a six-month experiential program for senior executive teams. The program is run through the Global Business Partnership of the University of Michigan Business School, a collaborating partner of the center.
• Established the Leadership Excellence Networks (LENS), a collaborative learning network made up of leading health care systems committed to fostering the skills and behaviors required for high-performing, effective health care leaders in various stages of their careers and across the disciplines of administration, medicine and nursing.
• Created the Graduate Health Management Education Demonstration Project to improve university-based graduate health care management education programs by implementing competency-based education and outcome assessment. Four graduate health management education programs participate in the program:
  • University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, Mich.)
  • University of Minnesota (Minneapolis)
  • Simmons College (Boston)
  • University of Washington (Seattle)
• Created the Health System Demonstration Project to work with management in selected provider organizations to accelerate improvement in clinical and organizational performance in their organizations. Five health systems participate in the project:
  • AtlantiCare (Egg Harbor, N.J.)
  • Henry Ford Health System (Detroit)
  • North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System (Great Neck, N.Y.)
  • St. Luke's Episcopal Health System (Houston)
  • Regional Medical Center (Memphis)

Funding

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) provided four grants totaling $1,028,583 from June 2000 through December 2004:

• Two grants to the Association of University Programs in Health Administration for strategic planning.
• Two grants to the National Center for Healthcare Leadership for its work.