Today in health, it S hospital. CEO's leaving at a record pace. What do you do when it happens at your health system? My name is bill Russell. I'm a former CIO for a 16 hospital system and create, or this week health. A set of channels dedicated to keeping health it staff current and engaged. We want to thank our show sponsors who are investing in developing the next generation of health leaders.

Gordian dynamics, Quill health Taos site nuance, Canon medical, and current health. Check them out at this week. health.com/today. All right. I was talking to Scott Becker earlier this week and he brought up a fact that I had wanted to talk about and had forgotten to talk about. But it is the fact that CEO's hospital CEOs are leaving at a record rate.

And actually by the time I get around to it, it's August 10th, 2022. And I'm reading from health exac. Magazine and the title of the article is CEO turnover appears to be stabilizing in healthcare. But let's just go into it. Cause they, they talk about some of these stats. The high rate of turnover for healthcare CEOs has seemingly slowed. According to the latest report on CEO exits from global outplacement in business.

An executive coaching firm, challenger, gray and Christmas. So far in 2020 to 832 CEOs have left their roles and healthcare CEOs have been among the most active role departures. In may hospital CEO's were leaving their roles at a record clip. With 36 hospital chiefs leaving their role to date compared to 20, who left their roles in the same period in 2021.

Fortunately for companies CEO's participation in the great resignation has slowed. With CEO, departures declining 45% in July. From the previous month, just 58 CEOs left their roles last month, compared to 106 recorded in June. In fact, July what's the lowest monthly total since April, 2020. When 46 CEOs exited that decline could underscore rising uncertainty in the economy, admit historical inflation rates.

And rising interest rates. The economy is facing uncertainty right now, so forth. And so on over all the CEO exits are up 8%. From the first seven months of 2021, during which time seminar 70 departures were announced during July nine hospital's CEO said goodbye. To the roles totaling 71. Um, You know, it's, it's interesting because I talked to CEOs.

Who are in the midst of this? , and, um, and the discussion usually goes something like this. It's like, Hey, your CEO's moving on. Yeah, I'm not unexpected. They had said something to the effect of I'm going to see our health system through the pandemic. And, , and that was a pretty tumultuous time, very taxing time for CEOs.

You have a lot of change in the culture, a lot of change in the demands. And they saw it through. And so I, I believe that's one of the primary reasons we saw a significant departure. Um, so anyway, the conversation goes, yeah. So your CEO went on. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. I loved our CEO phenomenal person. They did a great work. Really appreciated them, had a great relationship with them.

Um, do you know who your next CEO is going to be? , you know, they're, they're either doing a search or they're doing, um, or w we believe it'll be somebody internally, but we're not sure yet. Um, you know, how do you think that's going to impact you? And when we get to that part of the conversation.

I'll leave that conversation now and tell you. Um, what I think it means for the CIO. When you have a new CEO coming in, and a lot of cases, they are going to do a national search. If you are a larger health system, a lot of times they're going to go outside of your health system to find somebody. I don't know why that is. I just fundamentally that happens more times.

Then hiring internally, if they do go outside and find somebody. , you've got to develop a relationship. They're going to recognize that the CIO role is a very important role and that the it function is critical to the success of the organization. , and you have to start to develop that relationship again.

And almost treated like. You are coming into the organization for the first time. , one of the biggest mistakes I hear CEOs make fairly regularly. , we, we used to heard this. I want to be, I want to have a seat at the table. I did not have a seat at the table at a 16 hospital system. And it didn't bother me all that much because I had a really good relationship with the CEO.

Meaning there was 12 people are 10 people on the president's council. And they met, made the big decisions. Are we going to, you know, do some major things and that kind of stuff. And I was not at that table. Now, granted, I was in those meetings a fair amount of time because so many of the things they were doing touched on technology and they would bring me in for the, for those conversations, but I wasn't a voting member or anything to that effect.

Um, But because I wasn't in that. At the table in, regardless of if you're at the table or not, you need a good relationship with the CEO. And one of the things that I did to develop a relationship with the CEO is I made sure that when I was coming into the organization, that I was on the CEO's calendar on a monthly basis.

And that was enough for me. I mean, if we, and we, we saw each other all the time, but on a monthly basis, I would get about an hour for lunch or I'd get an hour for a meeting. And invariably, what I would do is I would clip articles and I would take certain things to her to share with her and say, Hey, this is an important thing that's happening in the technology world that I think is going to impact healthcare.

And part of what happened over that is our meetings went from an hour to an hour and a half to two hours. She started. Setting aside time. As I was investing in our relationship and I was investing in her, I was educating her on the things I knew about technology, because I was very focused on it and she was not as focused on it. And that's part of my role. Part of my role as the CIO was to bring her along in certain areas. I don't expect her to be a, an expert on artificial intelligence or, the technologies that are impacting how we are.

, approaching the consumerization of healthcare or those kinds of things. What I could do is educate her on, , privacy matters and those kinds of things, because I was focusing on those things. And so I'd clip articles. I give them to her, we talk about them and, , some of my proudest moments were.

When she got up to address. , large groups of physicians are large groups within the organization and she would start talking about technology. And I would be so proud because she became, I think one of the smartest technology leaders, , from a healthcare CEO perspective. That, , that I've ever been around. And it was one of those things where I was giving her the, , the starter information and then she was going out and having additional conversations and collecting things and, , having conversations.

And it was phenomenal how much information she picked up and then was extremely articulate with as the years went on there. So again, new CEO coming in, you have to have a relationship with the CEO. , for you CEOs or leaders, it leaders.

Who don't have a relationship with the CEO have to make it happen. And I realized that, , in some cases you might have a CEO that, , is not, , in tune to technology or doesn't understand technology.

I think one of the most important things we do as technologists is we don't talk down to people. We bring them along. , , we educate them in a way that is not a disparaging. Like, I can't believe you don't know this and that kind of stuff. I mean, we all know this. This is just how we should talk to people.

But at the end of the day, a CEO could be embarrassed that they don't understand technology to the level that they believe they should, or that appears there, their peers do. , in the industry. And one of the things you can do for them, is bring them along. And one of the things that they will appreciate is the fact that you are bringing them along.

Without the baggage of, , talking down to them or making them feel bad about what they don't know. It's so important that the CEO understands technology. It's almost a requirement that CEO understands technology and you. As a technology leader should understand it better than them and should always have something to offer them in the conversation, not just, Hey, I have this problem or I need this thing.

But always go to them with something that. That's an investment in them. That's an investment in them, understanding technology and moving them forward. , so that's one of the things that I did. And as we see these CEO's moving on. . It might be an opportunity for you to turn over a new leaf.

And to develop a much better relationship with the incoming CEO. Just thought that's all for today. If you know someone that might benefit from our channel, please forward them a note. They can subscribe on our website this week, health.com or wherever you listen to podcasts. Apple, Google overcast, Spotify, Stitcher.

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