Growing a hospital’s next generation of physician leaders rarely happens by accident. Chief medical officers describe deliberate efforts to identify potential early, pair structured mentorship and sponsorship with real operational experience, and build succession plans that carry leadership development all the way from residency to the C-suite.
Becker’s asked chief medical officers and associate CMOs across hospitals and health systems: How are you building a strong physician leadership pipeline within your organization? Their answers ranged from formal academies and dyad leadership models to intentional efforts to pull younger physicians into committee work earlier in their careers.
Editor’s note: Responses have been lightly edited for clarity and length.
Hijinio Carreon, DO. Executive Vice President, Chief Medical Officer and Chief Operating Officer of the Central Iowa Division at Mercy Medical Center (Des Moines, Iowa): Developing physician leaders begins long before someone assumes a formal leadership title. We’ve focused on creating opportunities for physicians to lead quality improvement initiatives, participate in regional health governance, mentor emerging leaders and gain exposure to finance, operations and strategic planning. By intentionally investing in leadership development, coaching and meaningful decision-making responsibilities, we prepare physicians to lead through change while keeping the patient at the center of every decision.
Nicholas Economides, MD. Associate CMO of Revenue Cycle at Baptist Memorial Health Care (Memphis, Tenn.): A physician adviser service line within a system will provide continuous educational support to hospitalists, ED physicians, case management and other physician leadership regarding the appropriateness of the patient’s status, as well as the cost of care; they will additionally vouch for proper requirements when contracting with carriers.
Claudia Emami, MD. Chief Medical Officer and Pediatric Surgeon at Ascension Sacred Heart Emerald Coast (Miramar Beach, Fla.): By investing in comprehensive internal leadership development programs and focusing on talent retainment in the physician executive space and decreasing turnaround in CMO positions.
Umar Farooq, MD. Chief Medical Officer of Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center (Hershey, Pa.): As an academic health system, we view physician leadership development as a long-term investment that spans our clinical, educational and research missions. We intentionally develop leaders early through structured faculty development programs, mentorship, leadership experiences, and national programs such as Fellowship for Emerging Faculty Leaders, Leadership Academy, Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine and Executive Leadership in Health Care programs, among many initiatives.
Equally important is our focus on succession planning. We actively identify emerging leaders, provide progressive operational and governance experiences and intentionally build talent pipelines for departmental, institutional and health system leadership roles. Our goal is to develop physician leaders who can align patient care, education, research and innovation while leading healthcare transformation in an increasingly digital and AI-enabled future.
Mark Meeker, DO. Vice President and Chief Medical Officer of OSF St. Mary Medical Center, OSF Holy Family Medical Center and OSF St. Luke Medical Center (Peoria, Ill.): We have invested in a structured, didactic physician leadership development program on site.
Nkem Mgbojikwe, MD. Associate Chief Medical Officer of Fox Chase Cancer Center (Philadelphia): Systemwide, there is a clear need to better prepare physicians for leadership roles in environments that are becoming more operationally and strategically complex. The most effective approaches I have seen involve early exposure to leadership concepts, structured mentorship, sponsorship (especially for women), and opportunities for physicians to participate in cross-functional initiatives. These experiences help build the confidence and skill set needed for future leadership, regardless of the specific organizational model.
Adrian Moran. Chief Medical and Transformation Officer at MaineHealth (Portland): Through the following:
- Early identification of physicians with leadership potential.
- Intentional leadership training programs with a particular focus on change management and project management skills.
- Continued focus and support of dyad leadership model at all levels in the organization.
- Enhanced focus on strategic thinking and resource optimization.
Jeff Shapiro, MD. Associate CMO of Emanate Health (Covina, Calif.): As far as building a strong leadership pipeline within our organization, we are working diligently to incorporate our younger physicians into committee and leadership roles. Over the past decade it has felt the younger physicians have had less interest in being involved. We are making some meeting participation mandatory but also having more senior members of our medical staff encourage younger colleagues to become more involved on various committees.
Jeffrey Weiss, MD. Senior Vice President and CMO, Montefiore Einstein; Professor, Department of Medicine (General Internal Medicine), Albert Einstein College of Medicine (New York City): As an academic medical center and large, complex health system, we are intentionally investing in leadership development — not only in foundational leadership skills, but in creating what I think of as “five-tool players.” These are physician leaders who combine clinical excellence and high emotional intelligence with expertise in data and analytics, information technology and AI, process improvement, strategic planning, and finance.
To build this pipeline, we have developed increasingly sophisticated leadership development programs that equip physicians with the skills needed to lead in a rapidly evolving healthcare environment. But education alone is not enough. The next phase is creating meaningful, “real-world” opportunities for emerging leaders to apply and refine these capabilities through strategic initiatives, operational responsibilities, and cross-functional leadership experiences.
Our goal is to develop a deep and diverse bench of physician leaders who can successfully navigate complexity, drive innovation, and execute strategy. By deliberately investing in both leadership development and experiential growth opportunities, we are building the talent pipeline necessary not only to meet the challenges of today, but to thrive in the healthcare environment of the future.
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