001 - Physician Leadership: The Foundation

The Licensed to Lead podcast is for physicians, physician leaders, or anyone who thinks healthcare needs a transformation. <br /><br />Licensed to Lead means that physicians  must establish the vision and the medical standards in our healthcare organizations so that excellent patient care is the central focus. <br /><br />Currently, unlike other traditional professions, medicine is not led by members of the profession. Physicians pay a steep price for this fact with a dramatic loss of professional autonomy, a financial mindset imported from business schools, and a focus on command and control by people who don’t fully understand the field. <br /><br />Even more importantly, patients and communities pay a steep price. When doctors and other caregivers become commodities, the many interwoven pieces of the entire healthcare system are harmed. <br /> <br />In this episode, Patty Fahy, MD, the host of Licensed to Lead, makes the case that physicians are uniquely positioned to lead by the very nature of medical training—not despite it. She refutes those who question the leadership qualities of physicians and clarifies why physician leadership is the ticket out of our current healthcare mess. <br /> <br />Episode One covers four issues that are foundational to the Licensed to Lead podcast: <br /> <br />1. Medicine as a traditional profession and how physicians must resume leadership of the medical profession and the venues where medicine is practiced. Physicians’ broad and deep understanding of healthcare and their technical expertise in medicine are missing when leaders come from business schools. <br /><br />2. The importance of physician autonomy is the centerpiece of Licensed to Lead. The loss of autonomy has crippled the medical profession and medical professionals as well as the communities who rely on excellent, accessible healthcare. <br /><br />3. The corporate practice of medicine statutes are laws that are critical for physicians to understand in terms of meaning, history, and current implications for pr