Recently, the Ministry of Health in partnership with the Foreign Investors Council (FIC) has developed a project consisting of leadership courses for managers in public hospitals in Romania: "Leaders for excellence in healthcare". This is the second project in the partnership between FIC and the Ministry of Health after the "My profession: Doctor in Romania" campaign organized during 2013-2016.

“Leaders for excellence in healthcare” is based on the international model “Leadership for European Public Health” developed by the Maastricht University together with the European Commission. The first session prepared a group of 15 managers from the largest public hospitals in Romania during two days of courses. The professors, Kenneth Rethmeier (The Rethmeier Group, USA), Katarzyna Czabanowska (Maastricht University, Netherlands), Tony Smith (Sheffield Hallam University, UK) and Marius Ungureanu (School of Public Health, Babes Bolyai University, Romania) have many years of experience in teaching leadership in the medical field.

"Leaders for excellence in healthcare" is a project that aims to develop the leadership abilities, which is truly needed in the healthcare sector. I think this project is a successful model that we will replicate and it represents a natural step forward for what is happening now in the healthcare sector in Romania, was the message sent by Sorina Pintea, Minister of Health.

The development of the courses started in 2018 when were distributed 100 surveys among hospital managers in Romania during healthcare events or conferences on hospital management. The purpose of the surveys was to identify the skills that hospitals managers should develop. According to the results, the main leadership skills that have been the subject of the courses were: communication, leading change, strategic leadership and systems thinking, emotional intelligence in team-based organizations.

FIC and the Ministry of Health also had a series of discussions before starting the project in order to determine the best ways for developing the curricula so that it would have a real impact on improving the leadership skills of hospital managers.

FIC has always argued that health is a priority for Romania, both through position papers and by developing projects. We believe that people are the most important resource of a company, so we need our employees to be healthy, educated and productive, to continue to create welfare and value-added in Romania. The project "Leaders for excellence in healthcare" is the proof that public and private institutions can work together very well when there is a common goal: improving the healthcare system and quality of life so that Romania can have sustainable economic growth, said Ramona Jurubiţă, FIC President.

Please see the video of the courses