East Tennessee Children's Hospital is seeking a Chief Medical Officer (CMO)

The Opportunity

East Tennessee Children’s Hospital (ETCH) is seeking a Chief Medical Officer/Vice President of Medical Services (CMO) to join our organization. The CMO will report directly to the President and Chief Executive Officer of East Tennessee Children’s Hospital, and regularly interface with the senior executive team, elected medical staff leaders, division medical directors, and the governing Board of ETCH.

Since 1937, East Tennessee Children's Hospital has been committed to providing exceptional pediatric care and services to families in Knoxville, Tennessee and beyond. For physician leaders that seek to recognize the great history of this organization while enhancing and growing services and key capabilities to better serve this region, this is the ideal opportunity.  East Tennessee Children's has a culture of respect and high integrity, with a rich history of selfless support of each other. To continue the success this leader must have an authentic passion for the mission and vision.

For more information, please contact Linda Cox-Collier at lcoxcolllier@etch.com or call 865-541-8532.

Opportunities and Expectations for Leadership

A successful CMO should excel at the below job duties and leadership competencies. Please note this list is not exhaustive.

Key Job Duties:

1. Physician Leadership: Provide leadership across all pediatricians and pediatric specialists, regardless of employment of alignment with ETCH. In this role, CMO is expected to the representative voice for the physicians to the ETCH senior executive team.
   
   
2. Shared/Paired Leadership: Partners with ETCH President & Chief Executive Officer (CEO) to effectively lead ETCH to achievement of its mission and vision. In this role, CMO is the key physician partner to the CEO, bringing the voice of the physician to the forefront of leadership at ETCH and modeling what partnership between senior executives and physicians should look like.
   
   
3. Strategic Execution & Programmatic Development: Provide leadership in planning and executing the hospital’s strategic plan.
   
   
4. Quality & Safety Leadership: Provide a purposeful and an enduring focus on achieving the safest and highest-possible quality care across all services and locations of care provided by ETCH. In this role, CMO must be a culture-of-safety leader and champion, visible to all internally and externally.
   
   
5. Recruitment & Retention of pediatric providers: Support, and where necessary lead, physician recruitment efforts for all ETCH employed and aligned pediatric and specialty providers. Ensure continued retention of current cadre of pediatric and specialty providers where appropriate and as needed.
   
   
6. Culture Champion: Lead and embody the core values of ETCH – Compassion, Ownership, Respect, and Excellence. Embrace and empower others to embrace, especially members of the medical staff, a questioning culture that is the foundation of a mature and effective patient safety culture.
   
   
7. Regulatory Oversight & Accountability: Oversee and lead all regulatory requirements associated with the organized medical staff. Supports Chief of Staff in their role in this area. a. Ensures internal and external compliance with regulatory requirements, policies, procedures, bylaws, and best practices as it relates to the organization and administration of the ETCH medical staff. b. Creates and reviews medical staff policies and procedures where appropriate. c. Administers, together with the elected medical staff leaders, recommendations of the Medical Executive Committee of the hospital on matter of a medical administrative nature.

Key Leadership Competencies:

• Be Uniquely Human: The CMO needs to be a physician of physicians while at the same time capable of relationships with frontline team members, clinical and non-clinical.
  
  
• Commit to Growing Physicians & Physician Leaders: Respect the legacy and history of this great organization that means so much to the community, while working to enhance the capabilities of the physician enterprise, particularly physician leadership. Keep a constant pulse on succession planning, hiring top talent and developing existing talent always. Identify and develop physician leaders across the organization – in primary care, specialty care, medical services, surgical services, etc.
  
  
• Influence Strategically: Serve as a confidant and advisor to the CEO. Listen and provide wisdom, guidance and counsel that are aligned with the originations mission, vision and values. Congeal the physician enterprise around common objectives and be a positive influence in ensuring "one voice" between the CMO and CEO. Be a recognized leader within the community and engage in influencing to further the mission of creating a healthier future for children.
  
  
• Take Initiative: be Decisive: Challenge the organization to look outside of status quo and where necessary, take action to enhance who we are and what we do. Challenge physicians and physician leaders to look forward to what is possible. While consistent failure is not acceptable, the willingness to fail and adjust is expected and should be inspired.
  
  
• Promote Optimism: Promote an environment where hope abounds, especially amongst the Medical Staff. Acknowledge the challenges that are real while at the same time embracing the mindset that better things are in store. Great leaders have an optimistic view of what can be even when challenges are present.
  
  
• Ensure Accountability: Set clear expectations. Deliver on time and consistent coaching and feedback, inspire and engage with executive peers and Medical Staff to help everyone to be their best. Be authentic and graceful in having tough conversations, ensuring all efforts maintain dignity.
  
  
• Embody Agility & Adaptability: Plan your work and work your plan but be ready for the unexpected curveball. Adapt to the circumstances but keep an eye on the long-view of things. Practice the concepts of early detection and rapid response.
  
  
• Personal Grit: Bring your “A” game each day – on good days and on bad days. Be persistent and dedicated in your work to furthering the mission of ETCH, even when barriers arise.

Professional Qualifications

Medical doctor or Doctor of Osteopathy with 10+ years of clinical experience in pediatric medicine with progressive leadership experience in areas of physician leadership and healthcare administration.

About East Tennessee Children's Hospital

Overview

East Tennessee Children's Hospital (ETCH) is a not-for-profit, private, independent pediatric medical center located in Knoxville, Tennessee that has served the East Tennessee region for 85 years. It is certified by the state of Tennessee as a Comprehensive Regional Pediatric Center (CRPC). With more than 400 physicians from nearly 30 pediatric specialties, families in East Tennessee can receive specialized care for their children close to home.  ETCH is the only healthcare system in the state of Tennessee exclusively focused on pediatrics.

ETCH includes the 152-bed main hospital, which is accredited by the Joint Commission and certified by the state as a 501(c) (3) non-or-profit organization, 15 pediatric primary care locations across the region, 4 urgent care locations, an outpatient pediatric surgery center, and the region’s only pediatric home health agency.  Annually, ETCH serves more than 430,000 patient annual patient encounters, serving patients and families from 87 of the 95 counties in Tennessee as well as patients from Southeast Kentucky and Southwest Virginia.

As a Comprehensive Regional Pediatric Center, ETCH offers full capabilities to care for seriously ill children in a unique pediatric environment separated from adult care areas, as well as offering the services of many different pediatric subspecialties. Comprehensive centers also are responsible for assisting smaller hospitals to meet the requirements of their selected designations, primarily by providing pediatric health care training opportunities to these hospitals.

The reputation of ETCH throughout the region is defined by the excellence of both quality of care as well as “high touch” or service excellence. Additionally, as compared to other freestanding pediatric hospitals, they have one of the lower costs of care. As an organization, they have an extremely collaborative culture and work proactively for the health of children in the region with other providers.

The Children's West Campus is in West Knoxville and includes the Children’s West Surgery Center and the East Tennessee Children’s Hospital Rehabilitation Center. It is in a convenient area and offers patients and families an off-campus site for some key services. Children’s West Campus is a pediatric outpatient surgery center and is a joint venture between Children's Hospital and area surgeons and dentists. The 9,822-square-foot surgery center includes two operating rooms staffed by Children's Hospital anesthesiologists. The East Tennessee Children's Hospital Rehabilitation Center provides local children access to comprehensive pediatric physical medicine, sleep studies and psychiatry outside of the hospital walls.

In 2015, ETCH began construction of a new patient care tower for the main campus with completion in 2017. The new expansion project includes a five-story building and two-level parking structure. The space will expand services for children with chronic conditions such as cystic fibrosis and other special needs. It also includes a private room Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) that will enable the facility to give the best possible care in a state-of-the-are unit. The tower includes include new operating rooms as well as numerous other ambulatory care services that will make access convenient. Enhanced family areas, such as a rooftop garden, will give patients and families a place to relax and relieve their anxiety.

In addition to comprehensive inpatient medical care, ETCH offers several outpatient programs to serve families within its community. One example is the Healthy Ways Clinic, which provides the entire family with an interdisciplinary team approach to making lifestyle changes. The mission of the clinic is to educate, empower and inspire families in a fun and supportive environment to live a healthy active lifestyle. The clinic is family-centered, collaborative and provides an interdisciplinary program for patients from 2 to 18 years old who have a Body Mass Index of 85% or greater.

ETCH's Physician Enterprise

Dr. Douglas Cobble,
Greeneville Pediatrics

East Tennessee Children’s Hospital has an affiliated network of pediatric primary care and pediatric specialty clinics located both in Knoxville as well as surrounding counties in East Tennessee. The network has evolved from the early 1990’s when some of the pediatricians in surrounding counties desired to be a part of the ETCH family.

The medical practices have grown into a complex group. ETCH has been flexible with regard to their integration model with the physicians and mid-level providers offering both full employment as well as a professional service agreement models. Physician compensation model are primarily RVU based contracts. The medical practices billing and collections departments run seamlessly through a centralized billing office at this time.

Over the past several years, ETCH has strategically expanded its medical practices with the recruitment of many new physicians, including both pediatric medical and pediatric surgical specialists

Key Facts:

• There are approximately 1,950 employees supporting hospital operations.
  
  
• ETCH has 152 licensed inpatient beds; 60 support level III neonatal intensive care, 13 support pediatric intensive care and 79 support a variety of medical/surgical conditions.
  
  
• TennCare (Tennessee’s Medicaid program) is the hospital’s largest insurance program, representing a ~65%  mix of the patients Children’s Hospital serves.
  
  
• As a CRPC, ETCH works closely with all hospitals in the region to ensure they are prepared to care for children by providing education and, when appropriate, pediatric supplies.
  
  
• Mission: Improve the health of children through exceptional, comprehensive family-centered care, wellness and education.
  
  
• Vision: Leading the way to healthy children.
  
  
• Values: “CARE is at the CORE of who we are”: Compassion, Ownership, Respect, and Excellence.