Hospital administrator perceptions of health information managers as future leaders in health care reform.

The article examines hospital administrators' perceptions of health information professionals moving into leadership positions within health care organizations. Data for this study were collected from a national random sample of hospital administrators (N = 62). Findings from the study suggest that, although health information managers are viewed as integral to the success of the health care organization, health information managers are perceived as lacking appropriate educational training to move into administrative or leadership positions. For the health information professional to move into a leadership position, educational training (at the master's level) must focus on quality management, statistical process control, and performance evaluation.

The emerging role of the health information management professional in data quality and analysis of an electronic medical record system.

The role of the health information management professional is changing with the advancement of the electronic medical record system (EMRS) and electronic financial database systems. The Medical ARchival System, a longitudinal EMRS developed at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, was used to describe the methodology that the health information management professional should use when performing data quality evaluations and data analysis of an EMRS. Specific examples of steps used to integrate databases to collect the data and generate appropriate reports and tables are also described and discussed.

Skills for selecting valued leaders. Eastern Mercy Health System takes a nine-step approach to choosing managers.

Catholic healthcare facilities seek skilled leaders who can adapt to the organization's culture. Eastern Mercy Health System, Radnor, PA, has developed an educational course, Selecting Valued Leaders, that teaches interviewers selection skills on the basis of the organization's values and mission. The course covers four major topics. The first is building culture. Each participant examines his or her organization's history, communication styles, organizational behavior, and mission. Next, course participants discuss the competencies necessary for a leader's success. Eastern Mercy Health System has identified the following six competency clusters essential for its values-oriented leaders: empower people, steward resources, integrate values, act as advocate, support sponsor's priorities, and maintain Catholic identity. The third part of the course covers a nine-step approach for selecting values-oriented leaders. Participants discuss topics such as the search committee, job description, search strategy, and job offer. In the final section of the course, participants sharpen their selection skills. They review appropriate interview procedures and discuss open-ended questions to ask the candidate.

Leadership transitions and the impact on patient care.

Leadership transitions are increasing dramatically in hospitals, both at the very top and in top roles such as nursing, operations, finance, medical staff, and so on. Increasingly, new leaders will articulate the importance of "customer orientations" as one of their strategic themes because of the importance of being more market-driven in today's environment. This article explores the strengths and potential pitfalls in both articulating a theme about becoming more patient-centered and implementing that theme in a complex organization so that it actually shapes transactions between front-line staff and patients. The article closes with a discussion of the dilemmas of sustaining a complex initiative across time when many of the key leaders in an organization will inevitably be changing during that time.