Becoming a Hospital CEO

Do you dream of becoming a hospital CEO? By understanding this career path and reading the blogs of some prominent hospital CEOs, you’ll have a much better grasp of what you need to get there.

Hospital CEO Salaries
Salary figures vary wildly depending on experience, location, and employer. Here are some links to various resources concerning CEO salaries.

Hospital CEOs
Hospital CEOs generally come from a medical background and almost always hold a Masters of Hospital or Healthcare Administration. Prior to becoming CEOs, they must have about 8-10 years of experience in administrative, management and healthcare positions. The hospital CEO is the highest ranking official in the hospital organization, and he or she also has the toughest job.

What do Hospital CEOs Do?
Hospital CEOs are responsible for overseeing day to day operations, serving as moral leaders who articulate the hospital’s mission and vision to the public community, and being the leaders in developing strategic vision and policies for the hospital. The CEO usually works alongside a team consisting of the CNO (Chief Nursing Officer), CMO (Chief Medical Officer), COO (Chief Operating Officer) and the CFO (Chief Financial Officer)- this is the hospital’s executive management team.

How do Hospital CEOs get to where they are?
In studying this list of “20 New Hospital CEOs to Know”, it seems that most of the CEOs have a couple things in common:

  • They served as COOs of hospitals before. COO, the Chief Operating Officer, delegates day to day operations and reports to the CEO, who is usually too busy to review production quotas and operations daily.
  • They held a Masters in Healthcare Administration, Business Administration or Nursing from an accredited university.
  • They held previous positions in strategic management, business and executive leadership. (Meaning medical expertise isn’t all CEOs need to have!)
  • They had about 15 or more years of experience in healthcare before they became the CEOs of major hospitals. (Patience is a must.)

Where can you learn more about Hospital CEOs?
There’s no better place to learn about hospital CEOs than from their own blogs. Here’s a list of 5 great hospital CEO blogs you can follow for insight into the lives of hospital CEOs.

The great thing about the blogging community is that bloggers want to converse and build relationships. Use this valuable opportunity to comment on a blog post by a CEO, ask some questions, introduce yourself and become familiar with the industry.

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