AHA White Paper: Physician Competencies for Next Generation of Healthcare Delivery

An American Hospital Association (AHA) white paper examines physician education and what core competencies will be needed to practice in the next generation of healthcare delivery. According to the white paper (free registration required to download PDF), skills that will be required of healthcare providers are leadership training, systems theory and analysis, use of information technology, and cross-disciplinary training focused on understanding and respecting the skills of other practitioners. AHA members were asked to rank how evident the competencies were in their organizations compared with their relative importance to the organization in order to determine the “gap” in which practice changes are needed to reflect the organization’s values. Competencies that were rated as most important to the organization but least evident in practice were related to communication skills (“work effectively with health care team” and “effective information exchange”) and systems-based practice (“provide cost-conscious, effective medical care” and “coordinate care with other providers”).