Reconsidering change management as a core competency in healthcare quality improvement
- 1Health Sciences North
Abstract
Healthcare quality improvement professionals are extensively trained in technical methodologies. However, a substantial body of implementation research suggests that leadership engagement, organizational readiness, and individual psychological responses are among the most significant predictors of the adoption and sustainability of evidence-based interventions. Workforce data from the National Association for Healthcare Quality underscore this concern: the Quality Review and Accountability domain, which encompasses the structural mechanisms for sustaining change, is the lowest-scoring competency area across the quality improvement workforce. When change management capability is absent or underdeveloped, the repercussions extend beyond organizational performance to population-level outcomes, including persistent disparities in care quality and inequitable access to the benefits of improvement efforts. This perspective posits that change management should be repositioned from a supplementary leadership skill to a foundational professional competency, with direct implications for workforce development, organizational design, and health system performance. Drawing on five established frameworks and a body of peer-reviewed organizational and implementation science, I argue for curriculum reform, revised certification standards, and governance realignment. This perspective invites the field to assess whether its current investment in technical training is commensurate with evidence regarding the actual determinants of sustainable healthcare improvement.
Related
- Factors associated with the quality of urban geriatric healthcare services empowered by large language models and improvement pathways: a theoretical framework and cross-sectional study
- Developing and evaluating a customized evidence-based safety training program for healthcare staff: a quality improvement approach
- Assessment of SafeCare healthcare quality improvement program for sustainable scaling in Ghana
- Reconsidering the Diagnosis and Management of Obinutuzumab-induced Acute Thrombocytopenia
- Improving diabetes management in older adults with cancer: a quality improvement project to enhance monitoring during steroid-based systemic anti-cancer therapy
BibTeX
@article{rajendran2026reconsidering,
title = {{Reconsidering change management as a core competency in healthcare quality improvement}},
author = {Venkadesan Rajendran},
journal = {Discover Public Health},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
doi = {10.1186/s12982-026-03170-9},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1186/s12982-026-03170-9},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Reconsidering change management as a core competency in healthcare quality improvement
AU - Venkadesan Rajendran
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/11/15
JO - Discover Public Health
DO - 10.1186/s12982-026-03170-9
UR - https://doi.org/10.1186/s12982-026-03170-9
AB - Healthcare quality improvement professionals are extensively trained in technical methodologies. However, a substantial body of implementation research suggests that leadership engagement, organizational readiness, and individual psychological responses are among the most significant predictors of the adoption and sustainability of evidence-based interventions. Workforce data from the National Association for Healthcare Quality underscore this concern: the Quality Review and Accountability domain, which encompasses the structural mechanisms for sustaining change, is the lowest-scoring competency area across the quality improvement workforce. When change management capability is absent or underdeveloped, the repercussions extend beyond organizational performance to population-level outcomes, including persistent disparities in care quality and inequitable access to the benefits of improvement efforts. This perspective posits that change management should be repositioned from a supplementary leadership skill to a foundational professional competency, with direct implications for workforce development, organizational design, and health system performance. Drawing on five established frameworks and a body of peer-reviewed organizational and implementation science, I argue for curriculum reform, revised certification standards, and governance realignment. This perspective invites the field to assess whether its current investment in technical training is commensurate with evidence regarding the actual determinants of sustainable healthcare improvement.
SN - 3005-0774
ER -