Executive Expertise

In our November 2015 Intelligence Report, healthcare leaders cited a variety of skills they find important for the CEO's executive team to possess. HealthLeaders Media Council members discuss areas of expertise that their organization will find valuable in the next few years.

This article first appeared in the May 2016 issue of HealthLeaders magazine.

Glenn Crotty, MD
Executive Vice President, COO
CAMC Health System
Charleston, West Virginia

My organization has taken on systematic review and development of our leadership system. In our leadership system, we have defined requirements for leadership, including defined competencies for leaders. There are some basic qualities we think a leader must have to even be considered for a C-suite role.

A potential leader must be able to [be a] role model and an effective communicator. Those are qualities a leader needs before he or she even gets in the door.

With those satisfied, the competencies we think that the leader must have or quickly develop is to build commitment, be able to motivate, have the ability to self-review and adjust, make change last, be able to reward and recognize, and raise the performance of the organization.

The leader also must share our values of quality, respect, stewardship, safety, integrity, and service with compassion.

Referencing Darwin, the most adaptable survive. One of the key attributes we search for in C-suite candidates is adaptability. Most plans that are developed will last about six months, and then something will happen—there's a new regulation that comes out, or a new edict, a new something will come. We need leaders who can roll with these punches.

Regarding the physician CEO trend, it depends on the need. If the need is mergers and acquisitions, then the pendulum will swing away from physicians, because they usually don't have that skill set. But if the need is continuously improving quality and safety for patient care and fulfilling the Triple Aim, then I think the physician CEO trend will continue.

Ronald Paulus, MD
President and CEO
Mission Health
Ashville, North Carolina

Cost containment and physician alignment experience would be pretty high on my list of sought-after skill sets, but there are a few areas that are missing from the survey results or embedded in the broader categories.

Also, the cost containment skill set is not just about cost containment, it's the ability to create better outcomes at lower costs. We believe firmly that when you create better outcomes, you lower costs.

One aspect that's missing from your survey results would be consumer engagement. I view the market as being in the midst of a transformation from its historic provider focus with traditional, fee-for-service care to a future that features a different way of engaging with consumer-patients, relating to them in ways and manners that meet their needs.

We put a lot of emphasis on consumerization of our system, so I would add consumer optimization as being one of the core skills for which I'm increasingly looking.

Another vital skill I would list as important is resilience. It's not likely that everything is going to work or that our industry is going to become easier—from here on out, it's a marathon, not a sprint. Someone who can stay upbeat, focused, energized, and stick with a game plan is highly desirable in this climate.

David Fitzgerald
CEO
Proliance Surgeons
Seattle, Washington

On cost containment ability: Cost containment ability is very important. Our business is much more focused on cost than a hospital, not because costs are good or bad, but because the net goes to the physicians' payroll, so costs are always much more immediate and much more "in your face" than at a hospital.

On IT skills: So much of healthcare is becoming data-driven. What you want is not just to have data, but to turn that data into good, useful information. All of a physician's decisions are based on data. The physician looks at x-rays, labs, feedback from the patient, and then he or she makes a decision—that's data.

Now physicians have to look at new things, and it's not data they had before or knew how to synthesize into that same decision-making. I want a leader who can take that IT piece and turn it into truly actionable data.

On determining an executive salary: [The individual's] experience and [the compensation of] peers are probably the two biggest elements in setting salaries. I look at the published averages for these positions, and I look at the candidate's level of experience. Have they already been doing this, more or less? Those are the greatest factors that go into my decision.

John Bishop, CPA, CEO
Long Beach (California) Memorial Medical Center
Miller Children's and Women's Hospital Long Beach and Community Hospital Long Beach

What I'm looking for on my team is people who are capable of learning from the past, but who are looking forward and embracing change. We're at a point right now where everyone talks about moving from fee-for-service to population health, yet there's a lot of uncertainty about exactly how to get there.

It's going to take considerable forethought, coordination, and vision to get us to the point where we're effectively taking care of our community under a population health model. It's about being forward-looking, adaptive, and really embracing change, because what we've done in the past isn't going to work in the future.

To me, culture is everything. You can have a great strategy, but if you don't have a team that works together and is really committed to the mission of the hospital and the health system, it's not going to be effective.

So, we're looking for a team that is not only visionary, but is committed to providing the best patient experience. The key differentiator as we're moving forward isn't just good outcomes—that's to be expected—but it's the patient experience. It's the little things, like the extra measure of empathy and compassion, making the patients know that you are there for them and not treating them as a unit of work.