Survey of physician leadership and management education

Health-care organizations have recognized the need to prepare physicians for various leadership and management positions within their own institutions. In the past, those who desired further education had to search beyond the boundaries of their practice to fulfill this need. The demands of a dynamic and changing health-care environment have created increased pressure on organizations to develop a larger cadre of physician leaders and managers among their staff and to accomplish this outcome in a cost-effective, efficient manner. This article examines the results from a survey of leading medical institutions on the existence of in-house leadership and management educational programming. It also documents the approaches used by the responding organizations and the content of their course work. Numerous institutions are accepting the challenge for increased physician expertise in leadership and management by developing their own in-house programs. Future directions for Mayo initiatives in succession planning will be obtained from this benchmark survey.