RT Book, Section A1 Lombardi, Donald N. A1 Slonim, Anthony D. SR Print(0) ID 1100081690 T1 Preface T2 Manual of Healthcare Leadership: Essential Strategies for Physician and Administrative Leaders YR 2014 FD 2014 PB McGraw-Hill Education PP New York, NY SN 978-0-07-179484-8 LK accessmedicine.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=1100081690 RD 2024/04/23 AB “It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma; but perhaps there is a key.” These words, spoken in 1939 by Winston Churchill, were focused on the changing global environment with its attendant looming change and crisis. However, this quote could be relevant to both the current condition of health care and the intent of this book to provide a key. As another quote—doing more with less—transforms into doing everything with nothing, health care is experiencing change, crisis, and challenge at an unprecedented level. A phalanx of puzzling new laws and regulations are making reimbursement and other pathways to profit for the majority of healthcare organizations—most of which are nonprofit—vexing and perilous, threatening the very existence and solvency of these selfless, community-driven organizations. The patient, heretofore considered a constituent who had unconditional abiding trust in his or her doctor and local healthcare organization, has now become jaded due to the media and political complexes making health care more complex in popular perception. As trust erodes, the patient has become a skeptical and wary customer attached to the mantra consumer beware!