Ten years ago, an academy focused on the future of care at the University of Alabama at Birmingham began. The UAB Healthcare Leadership Academy is a collaboration between the School of Medicine and Collat School of Business that cultivates essential leadership skills and teamwork between UAB clinicians and executives.
“The Healthcare Leadership Academy is an incredible partnership that has helped emerging leaders in the UAB medical community develop their leadership skills by reflecting on themselves, their organizations and the wider world,” said Eric P. Jack, dean of the UAB Collat School of Business. “We have turned out some incredible classes of talent in the past 10 years, and thanks to generous donors who support the program, we will continue to influence medical leadership in our region for years to come.”
More than 230 faculty and staff have completed the eight-month program and used their newfound insights to influence the growth of UAB Medicine and the patient care it provides. Participants work together to advance UAB care, developing projects such as a digital navigation tool for patients and families and a program to encourage medical students to choose careers in primary medicine.
The UAB Medicine Wayfinder, a mobile and desktop app to help navigate the hospital, was launched in 2018 as a result of one HLA group who studied ways to improve patient navigation. The HLA group was an impetus for this free app that provides step-by-step directions with functionality similar to Google Maps, enabling patients and their families, guests, and staff to reach destinations with ease and reliability, anywhere on the medical campus.
The 11th cohort of leaders kicked off in August with 24 participants. This year’s projects to improve care include UAB Medicine employee wellness, diversity recruitment best practices, clinical data access improvement and identifying ways to decrease patients’ not showing up for appointments. The groups will share their presentations to key stakeholders in May 2019.