“Health Leads Loves the NCHL Leadership Competency Model”

At NCHL’s Human Capital Investment Conference last November, Health Leads CEO Rebecca Onie discussed the necessity of addressing patients’ social needs and how Health Leads has provided a way for physicians and nurses to do this, by “prescribing” patients to them. Last year, Health Advocates, the student employees of Health Leads, touched 11,500 patients. These Health Advocates are the next generation of healthcare leaders described as “disruptive innovators” because of how they are working to transform the healthcare industry. Addressing the challenges currently facing healthcare, Rebecca describes how Health Leads is confronting these challenges. Assessing patients’ basic resource needs allows clinicians to better understand obstacles those patients face in leading healthy lives.  
Rebecca calls on healthcare leadership to “deliver healthcare that is accountable to patients’ lives” and make patient-centered care a reality. Using NCHL’s Leadership Competency Model, she provides examples of how Health Leads is working in each of the three areas – people, execution, and transformation. Looking towards the future of healthcare, Rebecca acknowledges its uncertainty but also the unchanging complexity of patients’ lives. She believes leaders will be evaluated on how well they understood and addressed these complexities.