Hospitals and health systems are complex organizations — their presidents and CEOs have a lot on their plate on any given day, and C-suiters have to split time between multiple responsibilities.
Here, four hospital and health system CEOs share what topic or activity they find themselves spending the most time on each day.
Cathy Jacobson, President and CEO of Froedtert Health (Milwaukee). Overall, it is communication — all types of communication, not always formal communication, but a lot of the time it's thinking about how to communicate, be it with the board, the executive team or staff members. Especially in a health system like Froedtert is, there are multiple communities which require multiple conversations with different points of view. I spend an awful amount of time internal and external communication. For example, I'm the chair of the board for Quality Health Solutions. The board is made up of CEOs of organizations in eastern Wisconsin, and we might not all have the same opinion. It takes communication to continue to drive what we do.
William Jennings, President and CEO of Bridgeport (Conn.) Hospital. It's quality and 
patient safety. We have a safety huddle every morning at 8:15. For 15 minutes, every leader meets in the library. The only focus of that conversation is patient safety. The things we ask one another every morning are how long since the last serious safety event, how long since the last employee injury, if there have been any serious safety problems in the prior 24 hours, if there are any safety concerns for the upcoming 24 hours, if there are any equipment issues and, finally, whether there were any great catches so we can celebrate them. We do that every morning, and the night shift does it, too. So it happens twice a day.
Julie Manas, President and CEO of Sacred Heart Hospital (Eau 
Claire, Wis.) and Western Wisconsin Division President for Hospital Sisters Health System (Springfield, Ill.). One word: meetings! The focus of those meetings is in different buckets, though.
I like to spend a lot of time connecting with colleagues…I finished our colleague updates for all employees in the hospital, which we held at multiple times during the day and evening. During those updates, we discuss our progress toward the hospital's goals.
[I also spend time on] retreats. I have had multi-day retreats with the hospital board, our development board, our volunteer board, and with Hospital Sisters Health System's eastern Wisconsin division.
I have spent some time on our computerized provider order entry…I've been blessed with other go-lives that I have been responsible for in the past, and I can bring to the table how not to do things. 
Richard Murphy, President and CEO of South Nassau Communities Hospital (Oceanside, N.Y.). Developing a long-term strategy for network integration while recognizing that the value proposition inherent in the strategy will ultimately be a function of a successful tactical execution of the strategy, not necessarily the strategy itself. Being able to discern how effective a potential partner will be in executing strategies for capital formation, quality performance, organizational restructuring and physician integration is difficult, as past performance is no guarantee of future success.