Cejka Executive Search Expands Consulting Team to Address Evolving Needs of Health Care Leadership Teams

Evolving Accountable Care Requirements Raise the Bar for Health Care Executives

ST. LOUIS (August 8, 2011) – The bar is rising for health care executives and leadership teams as the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) releases standards and guidelines for accountable care organizations (ACOs). Health care leadership teams are growing and adapting to new skill sets to address the development of integrated delivery systems, formation of ACOs, acquisition and integration of medical groups, and evolution of reimbursement methods.

“As hospitals, integrated systems and academic medical centers reshape and develop their teams, we’ve seen increase demand for leadership search consulting and recruitment,” said Deedra Hartung, Executive Vice President and Managing Principal of Cejka Executive Search. “We’ve built and restructured our client engagement model to deliver the expertise, resources and executive talent our clients need to address both the urgency and complexity of today’s environment.”

The Cejka Executive Search senior leadership team is comprised of veteran Managing Principals and Senior Consulting Advisors averaging 20 years in health care:

• Deedra Hartung, Executive Vice President, Managing Principal, is a former hospital CEO who has more than two decades of health care executive experience and eleven years of health care and academic executive search experience.
• Michael Dunford, Executive Vice President, Managing Principal, has three decades of experience in executive search and consulting, and has held leadership roles in several highly respected recruiting firms.
• Paul Esselman, Executive Vice President, Managing Principal, has nearly 20 years of strategic health care experience, ranging from managing profit and loss statements and operating budgets to planning multi-department strategic initiatives and corporate restructuring.
• Lois Dister, Senior Consulting Advisor, has extensive experience in international business development that is complemented by involvement in numerous aspects of health care, including academics, hospitals and health systems, and managed care.

Newly added to the Executive Search team to expand capabilities in key disciplines:

• Andy Sandler, Vice President, Senior Search Consultant, has more than 10 years of health care executive search experience in building and reshaping health care organizations through key leadership search engagements.
• Michael Tucker, Vice President, Engagement Manager at Cejka Executive Search, brings experience in operational leadership in nurse management and has served as a lead facilitator for leadership development programs in a top St. Louis hospital.

Cejka Executive Search has further developed its team of associate consultants, researchers, and sourcing staff with greater depth and capabilities, including social and interactive media to more quickly and efficiently network and screen candidates.

Leadership Teams are Evolving

“The need for leaders who fit the culture and possess the right training, skills and track record has become critical and has raised the bar for candidates and search firms,” Hartung noted. “Academic medicine has also raised the bar. Many teaching hospitals and academic medical centers are embracing change in their leadership search and succession process to ensure greater collaboration and alignment among stakeholders.”

Top leadership teams are increasingly likely to include executives with experience in change management, information technology, clinical quality, payer systems, and population health management. This includes greater demand for physician leaders: from the C-suite to senior level medical directors that ACOs require for establishing physician-directed quality assurance and process improvement committees.

Evidence of changing needs for leadership talent is consistent with findings from Cejka Executive Search’s recent snapshot survey of 100 C-Level executives. Executives reported that their management teams are transforming to encompass new skill sets and projected that the number of physicians in leadership and management roles is very likely to increase. Download the survey results:

Envisioning the Future Leadership Team of an Accountable Care Organization

About Cejka Executive Search
Cejka Executive Search, http://www.cejkaexecutivesearch.com, is a nationally recognized health care executive search firm providing services exclusively to the health care industry for more than 30 years. Cejka Executive Search recruits top health care leadership talent for organizations nationwide through our team of experienced professionals, award-winning recruitment technology and commitment to service excellence. Cejka Executive Search is a Cross Country Healthcare, Inc. company, a leading provider of health care executive staffing services in the United States.

For more information visit http://www.cejkaexecutivesearch.com, contact Kelly Trettin (Black Twig Communications), 314-536-8921, or Mary Barber (Cejka Search), 314-236-4410.