Leadership in health care vital during COVID-19 pandemic and beyond

Patrice Harris

As more Americans have reported losing faith in societal institutions, namely the federal government, trust in physicians remains high due to several “dimensions of trust,” according to a presenter at the American Psychiatric Association Spring Highlights Meeting.

“[Doctors] are routinely ranked among the most trusted professions,” Patrice Harris, MD, president of the American Medical Association, said during the presentation. “We have been able to maintain that high level of trust because we value and we strive to meet the three dimensions of trust — competency, honesty and compassion.”

Competency refers to medical professionals’ overall adherence to science and evidence and the willingness to “call out quackery and snake oil,” according to Harris. Regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, Harris noted that misinformation has spread rapidly, some of which was propagated intentionally to serve various political agendas. Virus-related myths included that African Americans could not become infected with COVID-19 and the virus was a way to force vaccinations on individuals who do not want them. Harris emphasized the importance of mental health leaders’ calls for media and government to affirm evidence and science in all their words and actions.

Honesty also ranks high among factors that contribute to clinicians’ trustworthiness, according to Harris.

“As physicians, we are honest with our patients, even when the news may be difficult to share or it is not what they were expecting,” Harris said. “Bringing that honesty and truth- telling to bear on medicine [allows us to] speak out for those who, for far too long, have had no voice — the uninsured and the underinsured, immigrants, people from communities of color, the LGBTQ community, those with mental disorders and low-income women who need equitable access to reproductive health care.”

The third dimension of trust is fostered by demonstrating compassion, Harris said. Specifically, this means clinicians must commit to seeing, acknowledging and sharing patients’ human experience, whether that includes joy or pain.

These three dimensions of trust are essential among leaders, and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has presented those in medical professions with the opportunity to express their leadership capabilities, according to Harris.

In response to the pandemic, the AMA has enacted multiple measures as part of its role as a major medical institutional leader. Harris outlined some of the AMA’s steps as follows:

• informed President Trump of the risks of shortages and asked him to leverage every tool at his disposal, including the Defense Production Act;

• encouraged private insurers to waive prior authorization requirements;

• advocated for new telemedicine guidelines, more personal protective equipment and test kits, and financial support for frontline health providers; and

• fought for $100 billion to COVID-19 treatment costs and re-coup losses that practices may have sustained, as well as for small business loans through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act.

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed a racial divide in health care, with the African American community having been particularly affected by the virus, according to Harris. Few states have released information relating to racial and ethnic patterns; thus, the AMA has urged HHS to make all existing race and ethnicity data available to help better address the pandemic.

In keeping with the presentation’s theme of leadership, Harris highlighted the importance of “demanding more from our leaders” who hold government, media, technology and medical positions.

“We are in a time of crisis that requires our leadership, but there's certainly reason for optimism and hope,” Harris said. “Although hope is not a strategy, it is important for us, as leaders, to keep our eyes on the prize and to make sure that we remain with rational hope and rational optimism...With that comes very practical public health activities, and so all of us all of us in the physician community need to advocate for widespread testing and do everything we can to make sure the testing is accurate.” – by Joe Gramigna

Reference:

Harris P. Physician leadership during times of crisis. Presented at: American Psychiatric Association Spring Highlights Meeting; April 25-26, 2020 (virtual meeting).

Disclosure: Healio Psychiatry could not confirm relevant financial disclosures at time of publication.