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Why This Health Plan Is Funding Physician Leadership Training

Analysis  |  By Christopher Cheney  
   April 26, 2018

A Los Angeles–based health plan seeks to improve the leadership skills of community clinic physicians to enhance quality of care and patient outcomes.

L.A. Health Plan, a publicly operated health plan that serves 2 million low-income patients in Los Angeles County, is providing leadership training for physicians to boost the quality of care at community clinics.

"The Physician Leadership Program participants are clinical leaders selected from the community clinics serving our members. We believe that investing in strong leadership in our community clinics is important to achieving the best service and outcomes for our members," says Richard Seidman, MD, MPH, who serves as CMO at L.A. Care Health Plan.

Return on investment

The total cost of providing and administering the Physician Leadership Program class is set at $149,500, and L.A. Care considers the expense to be money well spent. "Our goal is to improve [health] conditions throughout the county of Los Angeles," Seidman says.

L.A. Care is anticipating return on investment for the leadership course on several fronts.

"In theory, the clinical leadership in any of the clinic organizations in our network could generate return on investment through more effective leadership. With more effective leadership, it is more likely that a clinic can generate higher quality outcomes and reduce avoidable utilization, such as emergency room utilization, inpatient admissions, and readmissions," Seidman says.

Last year, L.A. Care organized its first Physician Leadership Program class, with 21 participants. The six-month program features five in-person seminars and five webinars. The curriculum covers topics such as:

  • Leadership style and serving underserved communities
  • Leading effective teams
  • Managing healthcare services and finances
  • Improving health center services
  • Change management
  • Physician leadership in quality and safety
  • Optimal leadership practices: achieving commitment, enhancing accountability, and mastering assertive communication
  • Understanding healthcare disparities
  • Best practices for hiring and firing staff

L.A. Care's second Physician Leadership Program class started earlier this month, with 20 participants.

'Not just theoretical'

The Physician Leadership Program has already made a positive impact at the local and countywide level, Seidman says.


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At the local level, every participant in the leadership program develops and implements a quality improvement project for their community clinic.

"It's very practical—the program is not just theoretical leadership training. For the improvement project, they get coaching and support," he says. "To the extent that these quality improvement projects are successful, our members are getting better care and, hopefully, better outcomes."

At the countywide level, a pair of participants in the first leadership program class have been appointed cochairs of an influential clinical committee—the Clinical Advisory Group. The committee is a group of community clinic medical directors and medical officers who also are members of the Community Clinic Association of Los Angeles County.

"They are leading a key clinical group that serves Los Angeles County. That's real impact because they are taking their leadership training and putting it to use to help design and implement better programs for our members," Seidman says.

Strong and weak leadership

One of the most important skills that physicians learn in the leadership program is viewing patients as whole persons from specific communities and environments, Seidman says.


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"Considering social determinants of health really requires clinicians to move past the medical model and what they learned in medical school. They also need to consider poverty, housing security, food security, whether a patient is employed or not, and whether they are living in a toxic environment such as housing with mold."

In contrast, weak physician leadership bears multiple costs, he says.

"Weak leadership results in the needs of patients being poorly represented and poorly served. Without strong clinical leadership, other organizational priorities float to the top."

In addition to compromising quality of care, weak physician leadership erodes morale, Seidman says.

"It can lead to poor morale among the clinical staff. … If you don't have a strong physician leader representing the staff's needs, then morale is likely to suffer. As morale declines, it is likely there will be increased rates of poor quality patient care and physician burnout," he says.

Christopher Cheney is the CMO editor at HealthLeaders.


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