How Vanderbilt's CMO Will Tackle Expansion, Physician Recruitment

Rick Wright is relatively new to the position of CMO at Vanderbilt, but he is already full speed ahead on several department strategies.

In 2024, the top personal priority for the CMO of Vanderbilt University Medical Center is to continue to meet and interact with an increasingly broad number of people in the institution.

Rick Wright, MD, became CMO and senior vice president for clinical affairs at Vanderbilt in July 2023. Wright has been an executive at the health system since 2019, when he was named chair of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery. Prior to joining Vanderbilt, he worked at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, where he was executive vice chairman of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and director of the Orthopaedic Clinical Research Center.

Although Wright has been at Vanderbilt for about four years, he is focusing on getting to know people in the organization that he has not had a chance to meet because of the coronavirus pandemic and the relatively short time he has been CMO.

"I want to continue to become more comfortable with the areas of the institution that the CMO deals with that I have not dealt with as chair of orthopedic surgery," he says. "For example, there are aspects of the internal medicine and pediatric departments that I have not spent much time thinking about in the past. I want to expose myself to more of how they do business."

The effort to thoroughly acquaint himself with Vanderbilt leaders and key staff members is both organic and intentional, Wright says.

"On the organic side, I am getting to know people by working on projects and using that opportunity to get to know people better," he says. "For example, one of the general surgeons who is information technology savvy works under the adult ambulatory associate CMO. Over the past year, he and I had to work on an ambulatory project, so I have had several meetings with him, and we are now at the point where we are collaborating on other projects."

"On the intentional side, I am attending meetings that I previously was not a part of such as with ambulatory medical directors and executive medical directors for our patient care centers. I am singling out individuals in those groups that I have not previously worked with at both the adult hospitals and the children's hospital," he says. "The president and CEO of the health system has a weekly operational meeting, which includes about 30 leaders across the institution. I am making sure that I have a relationship with each of those people."

Institutional priorities

This year, Wright also is involved in supporting institutional priorities such as growth of clinical services and recruiting physicians.

Vanderbilt is building a new 180-bed patient tower at the health system's main campus in Nashville, Tennessee, as well as expanding services at three community hospitals acquired since 2019.

"We have some service lines that we want to augment as part of the increase in our bed capacity," Wright says. "This includes the Vanderbilt Heart and Vascular Institute. So, I am helping to recruit additional cardiologists, cardiothoracic surgeons, spine surgeons, and orthopedic surgeons. We are anticipating growth over the next three to five years to fill the new beds with specialty care that we think we are well-positioned to provide in the region."

Expanding services at the three recently acquired hospitals, including Vanderbilt Wilson County Hospital, is designed to address capacity constraints at the main campus in Nashville, Wright says.

"We are looking strategically at what services make sense to offer at these three hospitals," he says. "So, I am involved in making sure the appropriate services are covered and we are expanding other services in these hospitals. We have been working on recruiting gastrointestinal doctors, cardiologists, and surgeons such as orthopedic surgeons at the three hospitals to augment what they have been doing in the past."

Competition in physician recruitment is intense nationwide. To rise to the physician recruitment challenge, Wright says he is capitalizing on the strength of the Vanderbilt brand regionally and nationally.

"Physicians appreciate the chance to work here and to be affiliated with Vanderbilt," he says.

At the recently acquired hospitals, Vanderbilt has improved services and upgraded certain aspects of the hospitals, which has attracted physicians who are seeking more of a community practice while still working under the umbrella of the Vanderbilt health system, Wright says. In these physician recruitment efforts, Vanderbilt also has leveraged the opportunity for community hospital physicians to have access to world-class specialists at the main campus.

Photo: Rick Wright, MD, is CMO and senior vice president for clinical affairs at Vanderbilt Univesity Medical Center. Photo courtesy of Vanderbilt University Medical Center.