Clinical vs. Non-Clinical Leadership: 5 Critical Differences

(And why it matters for your healthcare organization’s strategic direction) Would you use a scalpel as a butter knife? How about a butter knife as a scalpel? While both have blades, they can’t be used interchangeably. Healthcare leadership is no different. Leadership skills in one setting may not transfer to another setting.  Butter knives and  [continue reading…]

Dennis J. Kain: Reflections on 50 years in healthcare

  As I retire this month, I can’t help but reminisce on my career in healthcare. First, I am deeply grateful to the thousands of dedicated people who helped educate and collaborate with me since the early 1970s. Overall, my career has two distinct parts, health system leadership and consulting early on, followed by another  [continue reading…]

Building a Future-fit Executive Team

As the preeminent professional society for healthcare leaders, ACHE advances healthcare management excellence through education and research. They recently tapped Kirby Bates Senior Vice President of Executive Search Dennis Kain, MHA, FACHE, for his deep insights and decades of successful experience on ‘Building a Future-fit Executive Team’ for the November/December Issue of their journal, Healthcare  [continue reading…]

What to Know When Hiring a Healthcare CFO

  What is the role of a healthcare CFO? It’s a simple question, but in hospitals and hospital systems across the country, the answer is changing rapidly. As the industry changes and hospital consolidation becomes increasingly common, CFOs have become more involved with organizational strategies of all kinds. A CFO today is not just an  [continue reading…]

Four Vital Pillars for Effective Leadership in Healthcare Teams

  In the ever-changing world of healthcare, where advancements and challenges intertwine, organizational success hinges on the collaboration of a well-coordinated leadership team. Effective leadership stands at the epicenter of achievement, becoming the driving force that not only achieves organizational goals but also surpasses the multifaceted expectations of diverse stakeholder groups. What enables that level  [continue reading…]

5 Strategies for Developing Self-Awareness in Leadership

The American Organization of Nurse Leaders’ (AONL) core competencies are anchored by the ‘Leader Within.’ The ‘Leader Within’ seeks feedback, reflects, and understands how their thoughts influence their actions. In short, the ideal leader is self-aware—and they seek to become even more self-aware. Why Does Self-Awareness Matter for Leaders? As leaders ascend to senior echelons  [continue reading…]

Why Hospitals Should Invest in the OR Even While Cutting Costs

In these days of skyrocketing healthcare costs attributed to a combination of labor shortages, rising inflation, supply chain disruptions, low surgery volumes, higher equipment prices, and more, the traditional C-suite response is to implement organization-wide budget cuts, stop expansion projects, and put recruitment on hold. While this may seem fair and equitable at first blush,  [continue reading…]

Keys to Succession Planning in Healthcare

According to a report from Becker’s Hospital Review, CEO resignations are at an all-time high in 2022, with 520 leaving their posts from January 1 through the end of April — an 18% increase from the same period in 2021. It’s a sign of the times. Leader resignations across the board are skyrocketing, leaving organizations  [continue reading…]

5 Skills for Children’s Hospital Leadership

It takes a special type of person to be a successful children’s hospital leader. In addition to their clinical expertise, healthcare professionals who specialize in children’s care have a distinct set of interpersonal skills that position them to successfully navigate the particular challenges associated with caring for sick children and their families.  1. Compassion First  [continue reading…]

Answering Healthcare’s Call to Recruit a Wider Variety of Roles

  The COVID-19 pandemic has emphasized the need for healthcare executive leadership to be more closely aligned across clinical and non-clinical domains. As never before, organizations are seeking the clinical, operational and financial insights of experienced executives to inform recruiting across all C-Suite roles. Because Kirby Bates Associates (KBA) is led and operated exclusively by  [continue reading…]

Succession Planning in Healthcare: When to Do it & How to Do it Well

  Healthcare leaders and board members alike agree that succession planning is important, but few organizations actually begin the process or do it consistently or efficiently.  Many leaders find succession planning daunting, uncomfortable for themselves and they fail to appoint someone to lead the charge. What some healthcare leaders don’t understand is that a failure  [continue reading…]

What to Expect When a Long-Term CEO Retires

When a long-term chief executive officer decides to retire or leave a hospital/health system, there is a chance for a huge cultural shift. It not only affects the C-suite, but it spreads to all areas of the hospital. In July of 2018, Becker’s Hospital Review reported 57 health system CEO resignations from the first and  [continue reading…]

Emerging Role of the Chief Population Health Officer

By Dennis J. Kain, MHA, FACHE, former Senior Vice President (retired) Why Hospital Systems Are Now Hiring a New Type of C-Suite Leader The shift from a fee-for-service model to a focus on community wellness, increasingly known as population health, is re-defining healthcare as well as the competencies required of a successful leader. Organizations thriving  [continue reading…]