As AI becomes more embedded in healthcare, health system leaders are weighing whether the technology warrants a dedicated C-suite position or whether oversight should fall to existing executives.
David Rahija, president of Northwest Community Hospital in Arlington Heights, Ill., part of Evanston, Ill.-based Endeavor Health, said the decision should depend on whether a new technology represents a distinct, long-term strategic priority or a capability that leaders throughout an organization will need.
“I think you have to ask yourself, is this a temporary thing that we just need to get good at, or is this going to be an ongoing strategic competency that we must have,” Mr. Rahija said during a Nov. 3 panel at Becker’s 14th Annual CEO + CFO Roundtable in Chicago.
Endeavor Health is a nine-hospital, $6 billion nonprofit system that recently announced plans to merge with Chicago-based Rush, a combination that would create a 12-hospital system if approved.
Mr. Rahija said health systems need “an AI expert as a business partner” but suggested that may not necessarily require a dedicated chief AI officer. Instead, he raised the possibility of CIOs helping other business lines use AI to advance broader strategic goals.
“AI is not a strategy,” he said. “AI enables strategies.”
He said AI “is going to be ubiquitous” and that every service line will need to use it.
“If it’s going to be part of our everyday, then that’s a competency that needs to be pushed down to leaders across the organization and not centralized in one person or one function at the top of the organization,” he said.
Responding to the same question, Douglass Harrison, regional president of Morgantown, W.Va.-based WVU Medicine and president and CEO of Wheeling (W.Va.) Hospital, spoke more broadly about when to add executive roles, saying health systems must weigh the financial and operational implications of new C-suite positions. WVU Medicine is a 31-hospital system spanning West Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland.
Mr. Harrison said WVU Medicine manages its corporate overhead to a ceiling of 7.5%, making the organization cautious about expanding its executive team. He said many health systems get into trouble by adding “executive after executive after executive.”
He emphasized the importance of evaluating whether existing leaders have the capacity and expertise to take on additional responsibilities.
“I think you really have to assess the bandwidth of your current team and understand their skill set and what they bring to the table,” he said.
Mr. Harrison said organizations should consider whether an emerging responsibility can be incorporated into an existing executive’s role or requires a dedicated, long-term hire.
Beyond organizational structure, Mr. Rahija said executives should view AI as a tool for achieving measurable clinical and operational objectives rather than treat adoption as a goal in itself.
He pointed to reducing physicians’ after-hours documentation and improving efficiency in clinics and operating rooms as examples of objectives that could guide AI investments. He cited ambient AI and vision technology in the operating room as tools that could support those goals.
“You can be distracted by the shiny object and the new toy, or you can take a step back and really say, what are we trying to accomplish? What is our strategy? How does this fit into that strategy?” he said.
Mr. Rahija said health systems should evaluate whether an AI application helps advance an established organizational priority before committing resources to it.
“Focus on the strategy,” he said.
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