CPE Healthcare Leadership & Strategy 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A health system is moving from fee-for-service to value-based care. Which organizational capability is MOST critical to develop first?
- Expand inpatient bed capacity
- Build population health management infrastructure (Correct answer)
- Increase specialty service lines
- Reduce nursing staff ratios
Correct answer: Build population health management infrastructure
Population health management infrastructure—including data analytics, care management, and risk stratification—is foundational to succeeding in value-based payment models.
Question 2: A physician executive is asked to improve OR throughput. Which Lean methodology tool is MOST appropriate for identifying non-value-added steps?
- Control chart
- Value stream mapping (Correct answer)
- Fishbone diagram
- Pareto chart
Correct answer: Value stream mapping
Value stream mapping visually identifies all steps in a process, clearly distinguishing value-added from non-value-added activities to guide waste elimination.
Question 3: Under the Stark Law, which of the following arrangements between a hospital and a physician is MOST likely to be prohibited?
- A physician leasing hospital office space at fair market value
- A hospital paying a physician for medical directorship services
- A hospital referring Medicare patients to a physician-owned lab without an exception (Correct answer)
- A physician joining a hospital-employed medical group
Correct answer: A hospital referring Medicare patients to a physician-owned lab without an exception
Stark Law prohibits referrals of Medicare/Medicaid patients to entities in which the physician has a financial relationship unless a specific statutory exception applies.
Question 4: Which quality improvement methodology uses defined phases of Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control?
- Lean
- Six Sigma DMAIC (Correct answer)
- Plan-Do-Study-Act
- Total Quality Management
Correct answer: Six Sigma DMAIC
Six Sigma's DMAIC framework provides a structured data-driven approach for improving and controlling existing processes.
Question 5: A hospital board is evaluating the CEO's performance. Which competency area is MOST aligned with strategic leadership effectiveness?
- Clinical procedure volume
- Vision articulation and organizational alignment (Correct answer)
- Personal patient satisfaction scores
- Number of new hires supervised
Correct answer: Vision articulation and organizational alignment
Strategic leadership effectiveness is best measured by a CEO's ability to articulate a compelling vision and align the organization's resources and culture toward it.
Question 6: A physician executive discovers that a quality improvement initiative failed despite strong physician support. What is the MOST likely root cause?
- Insufficient physician involvement
- Lack of operational infrastructure and change management support (Correct answer)
- Too much data analysis
- Overemphasis on patient outcomes
Correct answer: Lack of operational infrastructure and change management support
Most QI initiatives fail not due to clinical design but due to insufficient operational support, inadequate training, and poor change management execution.
Question 7: Which payment model places the GREATEST financial risk on the provider organization for total cost of care?
- Fee-for-service
- Pay-for-performance
- Global capitation (Correct answer)
- Bundled payments
Correct answer: Global capitation
Global capitation pays a fixed per-member per-month amount covering all services, placing full financial risk for total cost of care on the provider.
CPE Healthcare Leadership & Strategy 3
A health system is moving from fee-for-service to value-based care.
Which organizational capability is MOST critical to develop first?