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Brief report
Importance of inclusive leadership in the pandemic response: the critical role of the physician
  1. Lauren Destino1,
  2. Anna Lin1,
  3. Roshni Mathew1,
  4. Tzielan Lee1,
  5. Natali Aziz2,
  6. Rebecca Claura3,
  7. Joe Kim1,
  8. Grace Lee1
  1. 1 Department of Pediatrics, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, California, USA
  2. 2 Obstetrics and Gynecology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, California, USA
  3. 3 Department of Anesthesia, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, California, USA
  1. Correspondence to Dr Lauren Destino, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, CA 94305, USA; ldestino{at}stanford.edu

Abstract

Background The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in multiple logistical and communication challenges in the face of ever-changing guidance, disease prevalence and increasing evidence.

Methods At Stanford Children’s Health (SCH), we felt physician input was an important element of pandemic response infrastructure, given our lens into patient care across its continuum. We formed the COVID-19 Physician Liaison Team (CPLT) consisting of representative physicians across the care continuum. The CPLT met regularly and communicated to the SCH’s COVID-19 task force responsible for the ongoing organisation pandemic response. The CPLT problem-solved around various issues including testing, patient care on our COVID-19 inpatient unit and communication gaps.

Results The CPLT contributed to conservation of rapid COVID-19 tests for critical patient care needs, decreased incident reports on our COVID-19 inpatient unit and helped enhance communication across the organisation, with a focus on physicians.

Conclusion In retrospect, the approach taken was in line with a distributed leadership model with physicians as integral members contributing to active lines of communication, continual problem-solving and new pathways to provide care.

  • COVID-19
  • medical leadership
  • doctor

https://doi.org/10.1136/leader-2022-000605

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Footnotes

  • Contributors LD drafted the original manuscript and contributed to the design, analysis and interpretation. She approved the final manuscript as submitted and agrees to be accountable for all aspects of the work. AL, RM, TL, NA, JK and GL made substantial contributions to the design, analysis and interpretation of the work, critically revised and approved the final submitted manuscript, and agree to being accountable for all aspects of the work.

  • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

  • Competing interests None declared.

  • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.