The drivers of new C-suite role creation

In creating new C-suite roles within healthcare, hospitals and health systems have cited reasons as varied as seeing new opportunities for growth or finding gaps in coverage as their motivation.

At least 31 new leadership roles have been added to healthcare organizations since February 2024. Among the new roles are chief health equity officer, chief decarbonization officer and chief experience officer.

Here is why four organizations added new roles to their executive leadership teams.

Greater connection between physician and facility leaders

Mobile, Ala.-based USA Health did not have a systemwide chief medical officer until 2018, said Michael Chang, MD, who currently holds the position.

"As the role evolved and we got the health system used to the concept of a system CMO, we realized that we needed faculty CMOs as well," Dr. Chang told Becker's.

In April, Manimaran Ramani, MD, was named the inaugural chief medical officer of Children's & Women's Hospital. Dr. Chang and Deborah Browning, MSN, RN, CEO of the hospital, saw the benefit of a local leader.

"It became obvious to both her and me that we needed somebody local to the facility that was her partner on the physician side on a daily basis to move the ball forward," he said. "Dr. Ramani is present with her at the daily safety check ins. He meets with her on a regular basis, and they discuss opportunities and issues in each of the CMO (focus areas)."

Dr. Chang emphasized the necessity of physician leadership in healthcare.

"The executive team of any health system is going to need a physician's perspective on strategic moves," he said. "They're going to need a clinician's perspective on operational matters, and they're going to need somebody that has boots on the ground in the quality and safety world."

Investment in academic partnerships

Baton Rouge, La.-based Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System appointed Catherine O'Neal, MD, as its first chief academic officer in August. In the role, Dr. O'Neal ensures alignment with academic partners and oversees the system's academic vision.

System CEO E.J. Kuiper told Becker's the decision to add the role stemmed from both opportunity and talent. Upon joining the system, Mr. Kuiper noted several existing academic partnerships. He had also recognized the talents of Dr. O'Neal, who was previously chief medical officer at Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center.

"As part of my overall assessment of the health system's strengths and weaknesses, investing in our academic partnerships became very clear early on," Mr. Kuiper said. After discussing the creation of the new role with the leadership team, they discovered that there was a desire to do something special with academic endeavors, and Dr. O'Neal was the clear choice, he said.

Hunter Richardson, chief administrative officer, added that another goal for the new role was to bring consistency across the multi-state approach to talent development.

"We're less than 90 days into having the new role. However, we already have a better understanding of the existing landscape, affiliations and talent needs," Mr. Richardson said. "We’re now partnering with our workforce development and DEI teams to further define needs and opportunities to maximize future talent pipelines."

Acceleration of innovation in technology and AI

Amid the acceleration of innovation in technology and AI, Cleveland Clinic has expanded its leadership team to include its first vice president and chief artificial intelligence officer. 

"Innovation in technology and AI is only accelerating, and the potential for these innovations to help transform healthcare is massive," Rohit Chandra, PhD, the health system's chief digital officer told Becker's

"Therefore, it made sense to have dedicated expertise in house to enable us to lead those transformations. Our top leadership has made leveraging AI a priority for our organization and was supportive of me expanding my team to include a chief AI officer."

Ben Shahshahani, PhD, formerly with SiriusXM and Pandora, where he served as senior vice president of science, machine learning and product analytics, assumed the chief AI officer role in August. Prior to Dr. Shahshahani's role, Cleveland Clinic also hired Albert Marinez as its first chief analytics officer in 2023.

Dr. Chandra said Cleveland Clinic hired Dr. Shahshahani "with the goal of directing the use of AI across our health system. He will work closely with other executives, clinical leaders and data scientists to drive Cleveland Clinic's AI vision of transforming healthcare delivery."

Dr. Shahshahani leads the development and execution of the health system's AI strategy, focusing on transforming patient care, enhancing employee experience and improving organizational efficiencies, Dr. Chandra added. He does this while prioritizing safety and adhering to industry regulations, ethical standards and data-security best practices.

"AI is coming, and over time it is going to impact everyone," said Dr. Chandra. "Everyone doesn't have to have their own chief AI officer, but everyone needs to prepare to be an adopter — (a) early or on time, but you don't want to be lagging and (b) in whatever areas that are most impactful to them."

Developing leadership teams at new facilities

Newport News, Va.-based Riverside Health is set to open Riverside Smithfield (Va.) Hospital by the end of 2025, President and CEO Mike Dacey, MD, told Becker's

While leadership definitely wanted to hire a chief medical officer and a chief nursing officer for the new Riverside Smithfield Hospital, the main concern was timing, Dr. Dacey said.

On the one hand, hiring the leaders later in the process of building the hospital would seem better from a financial standpoint, he said. On the other hand, from an operational standpoint, it was beneficial to hire the leaders early.

Thus, in July, Justin Billings, MD, was named chief medical officer, and Michelle Wooten, BSN, RN, was named chief nursing officer.

"We believe that filling them early makes sense because they can get to know the community and they can get to know the operations. The chief medical officer will be able to build outreach and relationships with doctors in that community," Dr. Dacey said. "The chief nursing officer would get a head start on recruiting, which is very important these days, and the hospital president gets to know the various community leaders as well."

Because all health systems are under some financial pressure currently, it can be tempting to want to minimize leadership roles, he added.

"But these leadership roles have value. They make very important decisions involving large amounts of money that affect people's lives," Dr. Dacey said. "So you want the best leaders possible. We put them in early because we viewed it as an investment."

What is needed in creating new roles?

"New executive roles are a significant investment in the future of any organization," Mr. Richardson said. 

He also stressed that the defined need should align with the organizational strategy and enhance the value of the organization by either maximizing revenue or avoiding cost.

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