Role of health-care workers in the future delivery of health care.

Abstract

There is no logical, linear way to approach a future in which knowledge and technology explode and new opportunities go hand-in-hand with rapid obsolescence. Teams and task groups will replace the vertical command structures of the past, making teamwork, flexibility, and imagination more important that absolute knowledge. Maximum downward task delegation and decentralization will empower workers at all levels while challenging the assumptions of licensure. As the health-care organization grows more ephemeral, management will become an increasingly subtle art. Visionary skills are essential in a dynamic, rapidly changing society where the past is no longer a guide for the future.