Crisis in Healthcare: Tactical Approaches Influencing Patient Engagement, Leadership Diversity, and Cultural Competence

Abstract

Patient engagement, population health management, and clinical outcomes are suffering from significant disparities resulting from healthcare organizations’ inability to demonstrate cultural competence in the workforce. A distinct failure of healthcare organizations to create leadership structures that reflect the ethnography of the communities they serve is systemic and problematic. The purpose of this study is to explore the management issue of social injustice in healthcare delivery systems and to explore strategic interventions that reinforce diversity in executive leadership. The framework applies Albert Bandura's reciprocal determinism theory, which implies that personal factors and the social environment have a direct impact on behavioral outcomes. This study used a thematic synthesis of factors that prior researchers identified as contributing success factors. A model that includes diversity in executive leadership and care provider roles can improve workforce development and health success factors. The research concludes with major findings that reveal health system network integration, diversity in populations, leadership, training, education, and workforce development as the primary success factors to patient engagement.