Health care is a complex institution because it is highly fragmented. The workforce of health care is complex because it comprises many professions (Broer et al., 2017). The workforce professions include administrators, managers, physicians, nurses, radiologists, therapists, and others. Workforce complexities arise when matching the knowledge and skills of a health worker with the needs of patients (Figueroa et al., 2019). Patients sometimes require the expertise of different specialists at ago or the expertise of different specialists collide, which complicates patient care.

The environment in health care is complex because it consists of many fields. Healthcare comprises different departments, including administration, therapeutic, clinical medicine, patient care, and health care as a business environment (Broer et al., 2017). Different health environments reduce the opportunities for coordination of inpatient care and lack of alignment of incentives. The business environment makes it hard to offer quality patient care because of the increasing demand for profit. Many health environments make healthcare complex.

Social expectations in healthcare make healthcare very complicated. There is too much pressure in healthcare because of the expectations from the community, patients, the government, stakeholders, and researchers (Broer et al., 2017). There are too high expectations from the social aspects of health care. Health care workers are expected to be superhuman or miracle workers; perfection is required of them. Social expectation creates too much pressure among health workers.

A good healthcare leader can successfully navigate through the complexities. A good leader will adopt new leadership techniques that are based on the current complexities. Adopting a meta-leadership framework and practice method helps leaders come up with situational solutions to improve outcomes (Figueroa et al., 2019). They see beyond the complexities by developing a good contingency plan that will enable a leader to solve complexities that may arise in the future. A good leader navigates through the crisis by meeting the problem head-on and changing the leadership style.

The fragmentation of healthcare has made it a complex system. The complexities of healthcare in terms of workforce, environment, and social expectations make it hard for health workers to deliver quality patient care.

References

Broer, T., Bal, R., & Pickersgill, M. (2017). Problematisations of Complexity: On the Notion and Production Of Diverse Complexities in Healthcare Interventions and Evaluations. Science as Culture, 26(2), 135-160.

Figueroa, C. A., Harrison, R., Chauhan, A., & Meyer, L. (2019). Priorities and Challenges for Health Leadership and Workforce Management Globally: A Rapid Review. BMC Health Services Research, 19(1), 1-11.