The International Hospital Federation is the leading worldwide organization pushing for healthcare management professionalization. Under this scope, I participate at the IHF – Healthcare Management Special Interest Group.

IHF Healthcare Management Special Interest Group

In January 2013, a group of leaders representing 10 different organizations around the world met to begin work on the development of a common set of competencies needed by healthcare managers globally.

The Healthcare Management SIG has two main goals: the professionalization of the Health Management discipline and build global capacity in the leadership and management of health systems. This group has created an international platform and developed a directory of core competencies.

The Task Force and Working Group formed by the HM SIG worked on the idea of helping bridge the gap between academia and practice by bringing together the Global Competencies Directory. By encouraging research on how competencies affect outcomes, the idea was to target the professionalization of healthcare workforce and to provide tools and information for organizations to train and develop competent managers and leaders for maximum performance. The Global Directory was born with the potential of mapping core competencies, transposable to outcomes in healthcare delivery organizations anywhere in the world. Its key comparative advantage is to determine a less ambiguous taxonomy framing competencies and grading them according to levels of proficiency as referenced by the “Dreyfus Model”. The direct application was the development of the self-assessment tool, a brief overview of the survey (self-assessment tool) and how it intends to contribute in the long run to the adoption of the competencies approach.

The International Hospital Federation

The International Hospital Federation (IHF) is an international not for profit, non-governmental membership organization.

Our members are worldwide hospitals and healthcare organizations having a distinct relationship with the provision of healthcare. We provide them with a platform for the exchange of knowledge and strategic experience as well as opportunities for international collaborations with different actors in the health sector.

Established in 1929 after the first International Hospital Congress in Atlantic City, USA as the International Hospital Association, it was re-named after the Second World War in 1947. With its Headquarters in Geneva the IHF is constituted under the Civil Code of Switzerland. The IHF recognizes the essential role of hospitals and health care organizations in providing health care, supporting health services and offering education. Our role is to help international hospitals work towards improving the level of the services they deliver to the population with the primary goal of improving the health of society.