How better leadership in hospitals can improve patient outcomes

New research has found an improved approach to leadership coordination and communication in hospital can improve patient outcomes.

The importance of healthcare systems globally has been under a spotlight since the advent of COVID-19. Much of this attention has naturally focused on the capacity (of lack thereof) of hospitals to deal with public health crises and there have been many learning lessons – particularly at a public sector level – in pandemic readiness as a result.

But what about the effectiveness of hospitals themselves, and the leaders responsible for running them? This question was the focus of a recent study conducted by Gavin Schwarz, a Professor in the School of Management & Governance at UNSW Business School, together with a number of local and international authors including UNSW PhD graduate Bradley Hastings. Their research paper, Distributed leadership in healthcare: leadership dyads and the promise of improved hospital outcomes, was based on a…