Students in the Master of Leadership in Health Systems Science (MLHSS) had the opportunity to learn from a panel of health care leaders from four major organizations. The panel included:
- Janice Murphy, M.S.N., FACHE, president and chief executive office of Sisters of Charity Health Systems
- John Langell, M.D., Ph.D., M.P.H., M.B.A., president of NEOMED
- Neil Smith, D.O., president of Cleveland Clinic Fairview Hospital
- Michael Forbes, M.D., chief academic officer at Akron Children’s Hospital.
The conversation was led by William Considine, chief executive officer emeritus at Akron Children’s Hospital. Each health care leader provided students with advice on how to handle failure, discussed their different leadership styles and answered student questions about how they transitioned into leadership roles. They also shared the skills they’ve learned to allow them to step out of their comfort zones.
Michael Kay, a student in the MLHSS program reflected on his experience at the panel:
“One piece of advice that really stood out to me was when Janice Murphy spoke about the importance of systems thinking instead of just blaming an individual when a mistake is made. This advice was in reference to when she spoke about a tragic event that led to the death of a patient, due to an accidental dramatic increase in chemotherapy medication. Her boss wanted her to fire everyone, but she had the courage to say ‘no’ and put herself in the line of fire. The reason why she said ‘no’ involved systems thinking. She knew that just firing everyone meant that this would promote fear/a punitive culture and would subsequently encourage those to hide their mistakes instead of pointing them out so these mistakes could be properly dealt with. The message was that most mistakes and errors come from a fault in the system or process that let these errors happen in the first place. I will use this advice in my leadership style to be much more critical on the process of how health care is delivered and work with frontline workers to optimize this process. By valuing the knowledge of frontline workers and working with them to optimize the process, less errors will be made, and people will feel more comfortable to share their insights and near-misses.”