Foundation of the New Hampshire Medical Society

New Hampshire Physician Leadership Institute

The New Hampshire Physician Leadership Institute will build a new cadre of physicians in New Hampshire with leadership capabilities, facilitate regular networking of physician executives, and create the groundwork to sustain continuing professional development through a physician leadership institute in the Granite State. Currently, New Hampshire has neither the capacity nor the infrastructure to support such an endeavor. This project achieves this by bringing together local resources to build a curriculum and program experience that focuses on the leadership competencies identified by physicians.

The aim of this project is to cultivate effective physician leadership within the state from the bedside to the boardroom by teaching management, communication, and leadership skills, fostering effective communication between the medical staff and administration, and empowering physicians to foster change among their colleagues.  The project will accomplish this through:  1) defining New Hampshire physician leadership competencies through surveys; 2) developing a physician leadership curriculum from this information; and 3) delivering two pilot physician leadership courses that sets the groundwork for a sustainable executive network and leadership institute. Developing and engaging physicians in leadership roles and decisions ultimately serves the strategic goals of the healthcare practice or system as it improves the relationship and builds a solid foundation that will encourage alignment and enable a healthcare organization to address larger scale transformational issues.

The enduring course that is developed and refined through the two pilot courses will be replicated and offered to other Granite State hospitals (or combination of hospitals in a health system), healthcare facilities or group practices with the partial support from the Bowler Foundation and fees by the organization from it continuing medical education funds. At the conclusion of this leadership development course, graduates will be invited to continue their personal leadership development through a physician executive network (through both online e-communities and face-to-face meetings) which will serve as a means to ongoing engagement and collaboration for New Hampshire physicians. Course graduates will be offered advanced leadership educational courses and facilitating roles in multi-disciplinary leadership courses where leadership skills can be put to use, projects explored, greater collaboration engaged and creative solutions borne. Ultimately, the goal is to have a sustainable physician leadership institute that empowers New Hampshire physicians to lead in the delivery of high-quality, cost-efficient healthcare that benefits Granite State patients.