Summit Talent Group’s Seth Lee Discusses Changes in Health Care Leadership
Summit Talent Group’s Seth Lee Discusses Changes in Health Care Leadership
As health care reform moves forward, hospitals and health systems must adapt how they hire executives, according to Seth Lee, managing partner of Summit Talent Group in Baltimore. With declining reimbursements and new investments in enterprise IT, such as electronic medical records, Seth said hospitals and health systems are changing along with their leadership needs.
What’s driving change in health care leadership?
Health care reform and reduced payments from federal, state and insurance companies have caused hospitals and health systems to reorganize, which has impacted the number of positions in senior leadership. Further, new models of health care delivery, such as Accountable Care Organizations (ACO) and Medical Homes (MH), two types of health care structures that focus on disease management, population health, and primary care at lower cost outside the hospital, bring new challenges. These models require leadership beyond traditional hospital-based and hospital-trained management.
How are hospitals, health systems, and health care leadership changing?
Hospitals and regional hospital systems are consolidating into larger hospital systems, which is causing a reduction of senior-level positions.
How else is health care leadership changing?
Electronic medical records have generated a new breed of analytical-capable executives with an emphasis on data-driven outcomes and the use of informatics. In addition, more and more clinicians have entered leadership roles, pushing out professionals with traditional Master of Healthcare Administration degrees. Finally, hospitals and health systems are moving away from traditional hospital management toward ambulatory management outside the hospital walls.
How must executive search firms adapt to these changes?
Traditional internal talent management systems have not produced enough internal candidates to meet these new challenges. Despite an increase in social media tools, health systems do not have the capability to recruit executive-level candidates and must seek help from outside talent firms to meet their changing needs.
Seth Lee, managing partner of Summit Talent Group in Columbia, a retained executive search firm, has more than 20 years of experience in executive search, specializing in the health care continuum.
Summit Talent Group specializes in conducting executive searches for C-suite, vice president, director and leadership positions in the healthcare industry.
Business Manager, Summit Talent Group