The Health Care Leadership Institute is a pilot executive development program designed to promote racial and ethnic diversity in health care leadership. Jointly sponsored by GNYHA and the City of New York's Baruch College School of Public Affairs, the Institute affords chief executive officers of GNYHA member hospitals and continuing care facilities the opportunity to provide middle managers currently working in their institutions with an executive development experience designed to help advance the careers of the participants. It is expected that participants, upon gradation and with the assistance of their sponsoring chief executive officers, will be ready to assume new levels of responsibility within their institution or in other institutions.

The pilot class of the Institute graduated on June 18, 2007. Sixty-two middle managers from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds, who were selected to participate in the program by their chief executive officers, received certificates of completion endorsed jointly by Baruch College and GNYHA. The results of the pilot class are being evaluated to inform the structure of future classes. 
                     

Goals and Curriculum

The Institute was conceived by GNYHA's Advisory Task Force on Diversity in Health Care Leadership, which comprised civic and business leaders from diverse communities as well as hospital and continuing care CEOs, and was established to advise GNYHA's Board of Governors on ways to increase the racial and ethnic diversity in the leadership of GNYHA's member institutions. The creation of the Institute was one of the primary recommendations of the Task Force, which the Board accepted in 2005. The Institute was designed to support the creation of a pipeline and network of talented professionals of diverse backgrounds who will be available to help lead health care institutions in New York. It is expected that, with the successful completion of the program, participants should be ready to assume new levels of responsibility within the health care field, whether in their own institutions or in others. CEOs were asked to assist their selected candidates to assume these new levels of responsibility.

The Institute's course of study provided an overview of the best practices in health care management, including strategic planning, financial analysis, communication, and dealing effectively with cultural diversity. Classes were held once or twice a month in the evening on the Baruch campus in Manhattan. Participants worked in clusters, researched a current issue in health care, and presented the findings of their research to the class and to Baruch faculty and members of GNYHA's executive staff during the final week of class. 
                        

Reflecting Diverse Communities

With communities becoming increasingly diverse across the country, it has become critically important for all health care institutions to undertake efforts to create workforce and leadership teams that reflect the communities they serve and that can help to attract patients. The GNYHA/Baruch College Health Care Leadership Institute is designed to assist GNYHA members in meeting this challenge. GNYHA appreciates the efforts of the 36 member institutions that participated in this pilot class of the Institute. GNYHA members who participated in the pilot class of the Institute are listed below.
                           

Participants in GNYHA’s Health Care Leadership Institute

Beth Abraham Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation Beth Abraham Health Services Beth Israel Medical Center Brooklyn Hospital Center Cabrini Medical Center Casa Promesa Residential Health Care Facility Coler Goldwater Specialty Hospital and Nursing Facility Coney Island Hospital Continuum Health Partners-Corporate Flushing Hospital Medical Center Gouverneur Nursing Facility Harlem Hospital Center Kings County Hospital Center Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center Lenox Hill Hospital Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center Mount Sinai Hospital New York Downtown Hospital

NYU Medical Center NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital North Bronx Health Network North General Hospital Northern Westchester Hospital Our Lady of Mercy Medical Center St. Barnabas Hospital St. John's Riverside Hospital St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center St. Mary's Hospital for Children St. Mary's Center, Inc. Schnurmacher Nursing Home Silvercrest Center for Nursing & Rehabilitation SUNY Downstate Medical Center Village Care of New York Visiting Nurse Service of New York Visiting Nurse Regional Health Care System Wyckoff Heights Medical Center