May 20, 2014, By Katie Sullivan, Fierce Healthcare
As the healthcare industry moves away from the fee-for-service model toward value-based service, hospital executives‘ roles and responsibilities change–and that includes the amount of space at the C-suite table.
Hospitals create positions to meet new needs, and the push toward quality of care means organizations require people with different skill sets to fill those jobs. In many instances, hospitals and health systems seek physician leaders and professionals who don’t necessarily have a healthcare background to serve as senior executives. And as quality becomes the top priority, it’s crucial that members of the C-suite seek feedback from the community and work on initiatives to improve the patient experience.
As healthcare demands change, so does the need for new positions on the senior executive team.
One of the C-suite’s newest members is the chief population health officer (CPHO), who is responsible for overseeing development and implementation of the organization’s population health management strategy, Often this C-suite member belongs to a large physician group, has other advanced degrees, and boasts experience in a team-based care setting and public health institutions.
To help navigate increasing amounts of data, some hospitals hire chief knowledge officers (CKOs), who turn raw data into usable knowledge that organizations can use in innovative ways. CKOs also use data to create new treatments, improve workflow and boost patient outcomes, while enhancing efficiency and cutting costs.
Other additions to the C-suite include chief incentive officers (CIOs), who examine ways hospitals can change behaviors to meet particular cost savings goals, and chief mobility officers (CMOs), who investigate, plan and implement mobile strategies for the organization.
No matter the specific titles, these roles require leaders who can demonstrate their success and ability to develop and implement strategies in areas as diverse as population health management, clinical integration, quality outcomes and financial performance, Paul Esselman, executive vice president and managing principal of Cejka Executive Search, wrote in Healthcare Finance News.
With all these title changes and additions to the C-suite, hospitals must move the traditional hierarchy to horizontal leadership. Healthcare organizations needs leaders who will check their egos at the door and use the power of combined efforts to improve hospital performance, FierceHealthcare previously reported.
The evolving healthcare dynamic means the backgrounds of the people who provide care and leadership are changing as well.
More and more, hospitalists and physicians find themselves in leadership positions, bringing an inner knowledge of hospital workings and a “problem-solver outlook” and making them a prime candidate to improve hospitals’ functionality, FierceHealthcare previously reported. However, these candidates might not have leadership or business training, so they should start in lower-level leadership positions and work their way up, said Robert Zipper, M.D., chair of the Society of Hospital Medicine’s Leadership Committee, and CMO of Sound Physicians’ West Region.
Hospitals also pursue leaders who don’t necessarily have a healthcare background. A Black Book Rankings poll found two-thirds of the hospital CEOs hired in 2014 will come from a non-healthcare career. Only 39 percent of newly hired CEOs in 2013 came from another hospital CEO position, down drastically from 79 percent in 2009, FierceHealthcare previously reported. Hospitals now find leaders in industries like venture capital/private equity, finance/accounting, banking, technology, marketing/sales, not-for-profits and pharma/biotech.
“An outside hire will not have developed hospital management skills from within or understand an organization’s unwritten rules at first, but that’s not a bad thing either as more hospitals face fresh ideas to avoid bankruptcy, expedite smoother consolidations, conquer payment reform and productivity issues,” said Doug Brown, managing partner of Black Book.
As quality becomes the main focus of care, senior healthcare executives must pay even more attention to improving the patient experience.
Newly created chief patient experience officer (CXO) positions give all departments a point person for patient experience initiatives,a benefit to both patients and employees, Cleveland Clinic CXO John Merlino, M.D., told Information Week.
Although there are currently less than 100 CXOs in the industry, many hospitals around the country now actively recruit for the position, according to Catalyst Healthcare Research. These executives help boost patient satisfaction scores by improving patient-provider communication, teaching staff to ask patients what questions they might have and engage them fully, FierceHealthcare previously reported. The CXO ensures patient experience is at the core of hospital culture and often reports directly to the CEO.
Many healthcare organizations also create and receive input from patient and family advisory councils. For example, at Georgia Health Sciences Health System in Augusta, healthcare consumers are involved in all aspects of operations, FierceHealthcare previously reported. More than 200 patient and family advisors guided decisions including anesthesia staffing, medication dispensing, patient handoffs, patient and family rounds, safety and the design of new services. As a result, the organization said its patient satisfaction scores increased and medication errors dropped over the course of three years.
Read more: More emphasis on patient voice, quality care improvements – FierceHealthcare http://www.fiercehealthcare.com/special-reports/more-emphasis-patient-voice-quality-care-improvements#ixzz331KffFjn
Subscribe at FierceHealthcare
About Morgan Hunter HealthSearch
Morgan Hunter HealthSearch (MHHS) provides Executive Search and Interim Leadership solutions for hospitals and health systems throughout the United States. Our services include executive healthcare recruiting, retained healthcare executive search, healthcare interim management, executive placement for hospitals.