Leadership in Action: A Question of Leadership - In What Ways has the Challenge of Improving Health and health Care Informed Your Understanding and Practice of Leadership?

A QUESTION of LEADERSHIP

VICTOR A. CAPOCCIA

Capoccia is a senior program officer at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, a philanthropy devoted to improving the health and health care of all Americans. He holds a Ph.D. degree in health policy from Brandeis University.

Americans generally expect high-quality and efficient health care; if they go to a primary-care or specialist physician, for instance, they assume that they will receive proper attention and that correct procedures will be followed. The fact is, however, that the U.S. health care industry—which represents 15 percent of the nation's gross domestic product and per capita spending of nearly $5,000—is ranked thirty-seventh in the world for overall performance by the World Health Organization. ...