Guidance for Health Care Leaders During the Recovery Stage of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

IMPORTANCEThe COVID-19 pandemic is the greatest global test of health leadership of our generation. There is an urgent need to provide guidance for leaders at all levels during the unprecedented preresolution recovery stage. OBJECTIVETo create an evidence-and expertise-informed framework of leadership imperatives to serve as a resource to guide health and public health leaders during the postemergency stage of the pandemic. EVIDENCE REVIEWA literature search in PubMed, MEDLINE, and Embase revealed 10 910 articles published between 2000 and 2021 that included the terms leadership and variations of emergency, crisis, disaster, pandemic, COVID-19, or public health. Using the Standards for Quality Improvement Reporting Excellence reporting guideline for consensus statement development, this assessment adopted a 6-round modified Delphi approach involving 32 expert coauthors from 17 countries who participated in creating and validating a framework outlining essential leadership imperatives. FINDINGS The 10 imperatives in the framework are: (1) acknowledge staff and celebrate successes;(2) provide support for staff well-being; (3) develop a clear understanding of the current local and global context, along with informed projections; (4) prepare for future emergencies (personnel, resources, protocols, contingency plans, coalitions, and training); (5) reassess priorities explicitly and regularly and provide purpose, meaning, and direction; (6) maximize team, organizational, and system performance and discuss enhancements; (7) manage the backlog of paused services and consider improvements while avoiding burnout and moral distress; (8) sustain learning, innovations, and collaborations, and imagine future possibilities; (9) provide regular communication and engender trust; and (10) in consultation with public health and fellow leaders, provide safety information and recommendations to government, other organizations, staff, and the community to improve equitable and integrated care and emergency preparedness systemwide. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCELeaders who most effectively implement these imperatives are ideally positioned to address urgent needs and inequalities in health systems and to cocreate with their organizations a future that best serves stakeholders and communities.

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“…Finally, in order to investigate the factors that predict ProQol, linear regression analyses were conducted (Table 5). Significant models were found for CS (F [6,179]…”

“…[1][2][3][4] Numerous cooperative efforts have been initiated by international and European organizations focusing on the implementation of health strategies, funding programs, policy recommendations and socioeconomic recovery plans. [5][6][7] The disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has drastically altered people's everyday lives and global mental health has become an urgent issue, identified as the tenth leading research topic. 8 Plenty of studies have deduced that COVID-19 has devastating effects on the mental health of the general population, such as depression and anxiety.…”

Towards a liquid healthcare: primary care organisational and management strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic - a qualitative study

“…The authors consider the present pandemic provides an opportunity to capitalise on this fluid scenario of constant change and adaptation – to listen to the demands of primary care professionals to reshape the organisational model of primary care, increasing its resilience to respond to and anticipate future health crises. It is also an opportunity to reinforce and focus on policies aimed at reconstructing public services and offering strategies for healthcare leadership [ 66 ]. The institutional analysis of organisations such as the Spanish healthcare system [ 35 ] enabled us to explore its internal conflicts and contradictions, which had remained invisible before the COVID-19 pandemic.…”

In the Eye of the Storm

“…Their framework summarizes important lead-ership actions to include recognition, staff well-being, data-based pandemic projections, emergency planning, dynamic priority setting with clear direction, communication and building trust, sustaining innovation and collaboration, performance improvement at team and organizational levels, and collaboration within communities and among government and nongovernment agencies for public health and equitable care. 23 Attention to technology and even nontechnology-based workflow improvements is essential moving forward to improve access, decrease costs, and lessen system burden. Expanded telehealth, mobile technologies, artificial intelligence, and predictive analytics are needed, especially those that improve either nursing workflows or patient care, ideally both, including the outpatient and home settings.…”