A Strategic Approach for Managing Conflict in Hospitals: Responding to the Joint Commission Leadership Standard, Part 1

Publication Title

Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-1-2011

Abstract

The Joint Commission’s leadership standard for conflict management in hospitals, LD.02.04.01, states, “The hospital manages conflict between leadership groups to protect the quality and safety of care.” This standard is one of numerous standards and alerts issued by The Joint Commission that address conflict and communication. They underscore the significant impact of relational dynamics on patient safety and quality of care and the critical need for a strategic approach to conflict in health care organizations. Whether leadership conflicts openly threaten a major disruption of hospital operations or whether unresolved conflicts lurk beneath the surface of daily interactions, unaddressed conflict can undermine a hospital’s efforts to ensure safe, high-quality patient care. * How leaders manage organizational conflict has a significant impact on achieving strategic objectives. Aligning conflict management approaches with quality and safety goals is the first step in adopting a strategic approach to conflict management. A strategic approach goes beyond reducing costs of litigation or improving grievance processes — it integrates a collaborative mind set and individual conflict competency with nonadversarial processes. This two-part article demonstrates how strategically aligning a conflict management approach that addresses conflict among leadership groups as a means of protecting the quality and safety of patient care is at the heart of LD.02.04.01.

Recommended Citation

Charity Scott & Debra Gerardi, A Strategic Approach for Managing Conflict in Hospitals: Responding to the Joint Commission Leadership Standard, Part 1, 37 Joint Commission J. Quality & Patient Safety 59 (2011).

DOI

10.1016/s1553-7250(11)37008-0

Volume

37

Issue

2

First Page

59

Last Page

69

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