A decade from now, healthcare executives will be leading a very different industry. We're already beginning to see disruptive forces reshaping healthcare, and I predict such forces will come from both inside and outside healthcare.
In an era of change, professional associations will play a crucial role in helping healthcare leaders and their organization adapt. Their success will be in direct proportion to their ability to reinvent their organizations and their core offerings.
The American College of Healthcare Executives is one such organization that is leading this charge, moving proactively to support our members as they work to ensure their organizations' success. It's been an honor to serve in a leadership role at the ACHE and participate in the development of a new strategic plan—one that leverages the organization's strengths while positioning our focus for the future.
The ACHE's strategic plan reflects the organization's efforts to broaden its outlook, provide access to expanded knowledge and new skill sets, build members' exposure to new operational models and help lay the groundwork for greater diversity and inclusion in healthcare leadership.
The organization's tradition of providing resources and educational opportunities at the chapter and national levels has helped thousands of leaders in their journey to success. This tradition will continue, but with a renewed focus on the skills that healthcare leaders will need in the future, such as leading change effectively, understanding population-health management models and developing new approaches for operational excellence. Innovative products and meaningful solutions also are being developed to support members' growth and success.
Future healthcare C-suite leaders will require not only expertise in hospital administration, but also in physician management, health plan management and more. We will be shifting membership outreach efforts to reflect this expanded focus—reaching out to professionals across the continuum of care, including physician executives, nurses and health plan leaders.
The organization also is strengthening its relationships with collaborators that share a passion for inclusiveness and broader diversity in healthcare. Diverse backgrounds and thought processes lead to better decisionmaking. The ACHE is renewing its commitment to those critical collaborators that share this passion, including the Asian Health Care Leaders Association, Institute for Diversity in Health Management, National Association for Health Services Executives, National Forum for Latino Healthcare Executives and Rainbow Healthcare Leaders Association and initiatives such as Equity of Care.
This is an incredibly exciting time in healthcare. As leaders in such a rapidly evolving industry, membership in professional associations that support our personal and professional growth is critical. When you consider the new resources, tools and models we will all need to help our organizations change quickly and effectively, it is important that we align ourselves with associations that are dedicated to helping our entire industry succeed—organizations that continually look for bright spots of success that we can all learn from.
I am pleased that the ACHE has demonstrated its ongoing commitment to improving the health of the communities we serve through adoption of this new strategic plan, and I look forward to seeing my colleagues take advantage of this support system as the industry continues to evolve.
