How Veterinary Care Organizations Use Interim and Interim-to-Permanent Leadership During Growth and Transition For a Veterinary Care Organization, an executive vacancy can create more than a gap on the organizational chart. It can slow decisions, put strategic initiatives at risk, increase pressure on other executives, and create uncertainty during a period when the organization may [continue reading…]
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How Multi-Site Veterinary Enterprises Build Leadership Capacity
Why Executive Leadership Has Become the Infrastructure That Supports Sustainable Growth The veterinary profession has entered a new era. Over the past decade, consolidation, private equity investment, and geographic expansion have transformed veterinary healthcare from a profession dominated by independent practices into one increasingly led by sophisticated Veterinary Care Organizations (VCOs). More than $60 billion [continue reading…]
Why Veterinary Organizations Need Leaders of Leaders
Executive Leadership Has Changed. Has Your Leadership Strategy? Over the past decade, veterinary healthcare has undergone one of the most significant organizational transformations in its history. Fueled by consolidation, private equity investment, and the rapid expansion of Veterinary Care Organizations (VCOs), today’s veterinary enterprises are larger, more geographically dispersed, and more operationally complex than ever [continue reading…]
Five Leadership Lessons for Scaling Veterinary Care Organizations
Why Executive Leadership Has Become the Competitive Advantage in Veterinary Care Enterprises Over the past decade, veterinary healthcare has undergone one of the most significant organizational transformations in its history. More than $60 billion in private equity dealmaking flowed into the U.S. veterinary sector between 2017 and early 2024, accelerating the growth of multi-site Veterinary [continue reading…]
The True Cost of Nurse Executive Turnover And How Leadership Development Reduces It
A single unsuccessful Chief Nursing Officer (CNO) transition can cost a health system between $750,000 and $1.5 million, making structured nurse executive leadership development a financial risk management strategy, not just a professional development expense. Yet healthcare organizations continue to place emerging nurse leaders into increasingly complex executive roles at the exact moment the industry [continue reading…]
How To Make Triad Leadership Work For You
Triad leadership has become a foundational way of operating across hospitals and health systems. There’s no doubt the triad is a powerful idea: you bring together a physician leader, a nursing leader, and an administrative executive to jointly lead care delivery. When these leaders work well together, they create alignment between the organization’s clinical quality, [continue reading…]
Executive Search Options in Healthcare: Pros, Cons & Best Practices
Executive Summary: Recruitment challenges in the healthcare sector aren’t limited to care delivery. Executive recruitment is also a pain point for healthcare organizations across the country. Here, we dig into the three leading approaches to executive searches in healthcare: In-house executive searches Contingent searches Retained searches We’ll take a close look at these three approaches, [continue reading…]
Rural Healthcare Leadership Recruitment: How to Find and Retain the Right Executive for Your Community Hospital
Key Takeaways In this article, you’ll learn… The scope of the leadership crisis in rural healthcare What is causing the challenges with rural healthcare leadership recruitment and retention How rural hospitals can re-frame their challenges with leadership recruitment How rural hospitals can successfully recruit the right leader when a leadership vacancy occurs Why partnering with [continue reading…]
Transforming Challenges into Opportunities in Rural Healthcare Leadership
Key Takeaways In this article, you’ll learn: The current challenges facing rural healthcare leadership Why rural hospitals struggle to overcome today’s challenges How rural hospitals can turn challenges into opportunities How rural hospitals can find the right partnerships to build future success The State of Rural Healthcare and Why Leadership Matters For rural healthcare leadership, [continue reading…]
Building Rural Healthcare Resilience: Strategies for Recruiting, Retaining, and Developing Leaders in Rural Hospitals
A vital and robust workforce is essential for rural hospitals in today’s constantly changing healthcare environment. Following the staggering numbers of workers, clinicians, and healthcare executives who left the healthcare professions during the pandemic, overall national healthcare turnover rates began to bounce back in urban areas in 2024. However, the numbers for rural healthcare executive vacancies have yet to rebound and rural hospitals continue to see more severe worker and executive shortages than their urban counterparts.
Rural Health – The Backbone of American Healthcare
America’s rural healthcare sector has changed size and shape many times over the last few decades. From 2005 to 2023, more than 140 hospitals designated as rural health facilities closed their doors or converted their services to non-acute care. Of those 140 hospitals, 81 shut down permanently, and the remaining facilities stopped providing general, short-term [continue reading…]
Filtering For Leadership in Oncology Research
What happens when a key leader departs? You need to hire swiftly, without compromising on quality. That was the challenge facing a recent Kirby Bates Associates (KBA) client after their Chief Operating Officer (COO) of 20 years left the organization. Over time, the role had expanded to encompass far more responsibilities than initially intended, leaving [continue reading…]
How Kirby Bates Found a Leader For a Distinguished Hospital in a Remote Location
How can a hospital, renowned for its industry-leading accolades, still face hurdles in finding the right Director of Surgical Services? In a recent Kirby Bates Associates healthcare executive search engagement, we grappled with the reasons that a particular hospital faced leadership recruitment challenges. The hospital in question was far from ordinary. It served as the [continue reading…]
10 Reasons Why Your Board Needs a Nurse Executive
A board can only be as effective as its members. Its vision, direction, and ability to drive change in a healthcare organization depend on the influence of its board members. Therefore, each member of the board should have something to add: a unique perspective, an unmatched expertise, and insights into a group of key stakeholders. [continue reading…]
The CNO’s Guide to Healthcare’s Site-of-Care Shifts
The healthcare industry is transforming. Procedures that once filled hospital inpatient units continue to migrate to outpatient facilities like Ambulatory Surgery Centers (ASCs) and Hospital Outpatient Departments (HOPDs). This shift toward outpatient care — which represents an estimated $50 billion in surgical volume — demands more than just operational adjustments. For chief nursing officers (CNOs) [continue reading…]
How to Protect Revenue as a $50B Site-Of-Care Threat Looms
In recent years, we’ve witnessed a significant migration of procedures from traditional inpatient settings to outpatient facilities, such as Ambulatory Surgery Centers (ASCs) and Hospital Outpatient Departments (HOPDs). This trend, driven by a combination of patient preference, payer demands, and technological advances, shows no signs of slowing down. In fact, a recent report from Advisory [continue reading…]
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…]
The CHRO’s Healthcare Executive Search Checklist
The healthcare executive search process presents a critical opportunity to advance your organization’s strategic hiring goals. However, it also entails significant challenges. As a Chief Human Resources Officer, you are acutely aware of the profound impact one leader can have on the organization’s direction. It is your responsibility to identify new executives whose strategic [continue reading…]
What Healthcare Private Equity Deals Reveal About Leadership
As interest rates and the cost of financing are anticipated to drop, the second half of 2024 is expected to increase private equity (PE) deal volumes. This deal volume will grow slowly and cautiously for physician practice management (PPM) groups. While many PPMs slated for sales in the last year have struggled to find [continue reading…]
5 Benefits of Interim Executive Management in Healthcare
In any industry, temporary solutions often get a bad rap. They’re seen as quick fixes that enable leaders to kick the can a little further down the road. But is that really all they do? Absolutely not. Both figuratively and literally, temporary solutions—like band aids—can be crucial for stopping the bleeding and providing necessary stability. [continue reading…]