Coaching in Health Care: Focus on Physicians

S Boeschen International Journal of Coaching in Organizations 2011

The health care industry in the United States is highly complex, structurally and historically. The layered hierarchy of caregivers and regulations that affect direct care adds complexity. For example, the range of caregiver organizations includes insurers, hospitals, physician groups, pharmaceutical firms, biotechnology firms, and others. Health care reform has the potential to bring physicians into a prominent leadership role because many of the initiatives focus on cost reduction, as well as quality improvement and variation reduction in care practices. This article focuses on leadership coaching, particularly for emerging physician leaders. The change curve is steep – a good time for coaching.