Accreditation Canada's Leadership standards help Canadian health care organizations meet demands for excellence in leadership. They are based on research and best practice and align with the Framework for the Analysis of Management in Health Care Organizations and Proposed Standards for Practice, researched and developed by J.L. Denis et al. (2006). The standards address leadership functions across and throughout all levels of the organization, rather than individual or position-specific capabilities. They clarify the requirements for effective operational and performance management supports, decision-making structures, and infrastructure needed to drive excellence and quality improvement in health service delivery.
The Leadership standards are grouped into four sections that each address a key leadership responsibility that organizations must have in place as part of their pursuit of quality and safety:
Creating and sustaining a caring culture: Addresses identifying, strengthening, and disseminating the culture and values throughout the organization. In particular, it addresses the need for health care organizations to create a culture that supports a safe and healthy work environment and ongoing quality improvement.
Planning and designing services: Addresses the organization's ability to assess trends in the environment, including the service needs of the populations it serves, and use that information to plan its structures, management systems, and services. It also deals with the organization's relationships with stakeholders and its processes to manage change.
Allocating resources and building infrastructure: Addresses managing resources, working with partners to share and optimize resources, allocating resources fairly and in accordance with organizational priorities, human resources and performance management systems, the physical environment, and information systems infrastructure.
Monitoring and improving quality and safety: Addresses the organizational systems and processes needed to deliver safe, high quality services and achieve the organization's goals and objectives, including assessing and improving client flow, preparing for disasters and emergencies, and improving client safety on an ongoing basis.