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 only Level III Trauma Center in its region, was ranked one of the best global hospitals for three consecutive years, and earned multiple accolades, including an A Grade from Leapfrog Group’s Hospital Safety Grade, The Joint Commission’s Gold Seal of Approval® for Core Certification in Spine Surgery and Total Hip and Knee Joint Replacement Surgery, and a 5-star overall rating from CMS.
Despite these impressive distinctions, the hospital was still facing challenges. Let’s take a closer look at what they needed from a leader.
1. New Hospital Construction Demands a Leader With Building Experience
By 2030, all California hospitals providing acute care services are required to meet new regulatory seismic requirements and must be equipped to remain fully operational to provide care after an earthquake. For many, this mandate requires extensive structural retrofitting—an undertaking that often comes with steep costs and years of disruptive construction impacting regular operations.
For this hospital, with 111 staffed beds and 750+ employees, such retrofitting would be cost prohibitive. An analysis performed by the organization found that retrofitting the hospital would cost the system $100 million more than new construction and would take more time. In light of California regulations and its impact on the hospital’s ability to remain open, the parent health system planned to build a new facility six miles east in Nevada.
It was essential for the selected candidate to have construction experience, enabling the organization to efficiently manage this major strategic project and its associated capital. Additionally, this expertise would assure seamless communication and collaboration across the system’s other facilities, preserving its strong presence in eastern California.
2. The Hospital’s Geographic Location Was a Challenge For Recruitment
Despite the scenic location, the hospital had historically faced challenges recruiting great leaders due in part to its remote location. The ideal candidate profile for the Director of Surgical Services role was most likely to be found leading in urban or suburban hospitals and health systems.
However, the hospital’s remote location posed a significant adjustment for leaders unaccustomed to a more rugged environment. Given the urgency of the hire, the hospital needed to streamline the process by prioritizing candidates genuinely open to relocating, avoiding wasted time on those for whom the location might be a dealbreaker.
3. The Hospital’s Not-For-Profit Status Demanded Strong Financial Acumen
Perioperative Services is the revenue engine for hospitals, making it critical for the not-for-profit health system to find a candidate capable of maintaining the hospital’s high-quality care, while also generating the revenue necessary to sustain the hospital’s strategic goals. The ideal candidate for the Director of Surgical Services needed both construction experience and strong financial acumen to balance margins in the surgical services sector.
This demanded a candidate with a deep understanding of case volumes, scheduling, team building, and how to optimize these elements in conjunction with reimbursements to assure the organization’s strong fiscal health. Additionally, the health system sought a leader who could uphold the hospital’s exceptional perioperative operations throughout the construction process, manage high surgical volumes and seasonal challenges, and adapt to the demands of a remote location with unpredictable weather patterns—all within the constraints of a not-for-profit environment.
Traditional recruiting methods, such as posting on industry-specific job boards and relying on open applications, were not yielding top candidates with the necessary expertise and experience. These approaches were resource-intensive and time-consuming, failing to deliver the caliber of talent the hospital urgently needed.
Recognizing their need, the health system turned to the leaders in healthcare executive search: Kirby Bates Associates.
Unique Health Systems Need Unique Executive Recruitment Strategies
Given the challenges facing the health system—new construction, a remote location, and not-for-profit status—it was clear to Kirby Bates that active candidates couldn’t be the only recruitment strategy in play. While an active candidate might fit the health system’s needs for the short term, they were unlikely to meet the health system’s long term goals. As a top rated global hospital, good enough simply wasn’t good enough.
Kirby Bates Identifies Passive Candidates
To find the leader needed for this health system, Kirby Bates turned to one of its signature approaches to healthcare executive recruitment: recruiting passive candidates using a criteria based search process. The executive recruiters at Kirby Bates identified passive candidates as being vital for this role for several reasons:
- The skills and experience required were unique: As illustrated, the candidate for this role needed a unique skill set. Construction experience, plus not-for-profit healthcare leadership experience, plus the leadership to maintain and continue improving in a highly rated hospital undergoing major transitions equals a very tall order.
- The location had significant implications for long-term candidate fit: Kirby Bates identified the location as a significant risk for long-term candidate fit. While active candidates are not less qualified, or less experienced than passive candidates, one thing is certain: they are actively in need of a role. This presented a risk for the hospital with a remote location. An active candidate may be willing to settle for the location in the short term to meet their immediate needs, only to resign once a position comes along that meets their long term goals.
Passive candidates, on the other hand, are already thriving in their current roles. They are far less likely to be recruited away if the opportunity is truly a fit for their personal and career goals, even if the location is a challenge. Ultimately, being sure that a candidate wouldn’t leave shortly after placement was vital for this health system, as continuity in leadership would be vital for successfully achieving the organization’s goals over the next half decade. - A proven track record was needed: Given the challenges this leader would face, it was essential for the hospital to know that the leader they hired was resilient and could push through. Passive candidates with lengthy tenures often demonstrate their abilities to do just that.
With decades of healthcare industry experience, Kirby Bates Associates’ executive recruiters have built extensive networks with experience leading healthcare organizations, attending, speaking, and presenting at industry conferences and associations, and conducting targeted outreach. These networks represent pools of passive candidates, enabling KBA’s executive recruiters to focus on the depth and quality of candidates, rather than the quantity.
In this scenario, KBA was able to identify and recruit a passive candidate from Pennsylvania who was the perfect fit to lead the organization as it builds a new facility and seeks to maintain its impressive reputation as a leader in clinical outcomes—who was also happy to relocate to the remote location.
Unique Roles Need Unique Candidates—and Recruiters
Healthcare is unlike any other sector. It operates in a uniquely stringent regulatory environment, faces shrinking reimbursements, and has higher stakes than any other industry.
That unique ecosystem demands equally specialized leadership. At Kirby Bates Associates, we understand that having expert executive search partners is crucial for success in the healthcare industry. Just as you wouldn’t trust a general surgeon to perform neurosurgery, you shouldn’t rely on non-specialized recruiters to fill healthcare executive roles. As the recognized leader in healthcare executive search, Kirby Bates Associates can help your organization find the leaders you need to move your organization forward.
If you’re searching for a leader, get a free 30-minute consultation with KBA. Click here to schedule your call.