John R. Combes, M.D.

Integrated Leadership in Healthcare
Sunday 11:15 a.m.-12:15 p.m.
Upper Level 6A

The health care system of the future will demand delivery of greater value at reduced costs. The leaders of this system will need new skill sets and the ability to adapt to an ever-changing variety of market forces.

Where will these leaders come from?

According to John R. Combes, M.D., Chief Medical Officer (CMO) and Senior Vice President at the American Hospital Association (AHA), these leaders can and should come from anesthesiology.

“The issue of leadership development is important for all physicians, but anesthesiologists have played important roles as national leaders in patient safety and on their clinical teams,” said Dr. Combes. “It is natural for them to hone their leadership skills and lead within the institutions where they practice and in clinical groups that manage their organization’s care delivery.”

During “Integrated Leadership in Healthcare,” from 11:15 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. Sunday in Upper 6A, Dr. Combes will help attendees to:

• Identify principles of integrated leadership for hospitals and health systems.
• Analyze key elements of physician organization, leadership development and cultural adaptations necessary to achieve integrated leadership.
• Evaluate challenges and barriers to creating and instituting integrated health care leadership between physicians and hospitals, including structure, cultural gaps, and legal and regulatory issues.

Dr. Combes’ presentation will draw from dialogue that has taken place between the AHA, the American Medical Association (AMA) and Health Affairs, and leading health policy experts and representatives from several innovative integrated delivery systems. That group sought to expand the discussion on how care will be organized in the future to meet the goals of a more effective system. Six key principles were developed in follow up meetings between the AHA and AMA that will help to drive effective and successful new models of care based on integrated leadership. Those principles will be discussed in Dr. Combes’ talk.

Physician anesthesiologists are well positioned to be leaders in the coming health care paradigm, but they must be willing to embrace change and new roles.

“The leaders of the future need to develop an understanding of the changing nature of the health care environment, its impact on health care organizations and to develop the leadership and management skills to partner with these organizations for the delivery of high-quality, efficient and patient-centered care,” said Dr. Combes.