Strengthening Leadership to Improve Health Service Delivery

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      The World Health Organization identifies six critical building blocks in order for a health system to function: service delivery, human resources for health, medical products, health information systems, health financing, and leadership and governance.  In this article, various health care teams in Kenya attended a six month intervention program centered around a "Challenge Model" similar to Kouzes and Posner's philosophies. Each team identified a problem faced in their healthcare setting and developed a shared vision to fix the problem. Participants who attended the six month intervention program were more successful than their health care competitors in increasing government coverage and compensation in fully immunizing children and providing deliveries by skilled birth attendants. We obviously all must believe leadership is an important component in healthcare, hence why Kent State's dietetic internship program sounded so appealing. This article just reiterates the importance of teaching those in management positions to identify staff capacities and strengths, ensure a structure that provides accountability, articulate the organization's mission,etc.

E. Kintner

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