Interim Management
Having a vacancy in a key leadership position can present significant challenges for a hospital or medical group.
- It can hamper your ability to maintain momentum in key strategic and operational initiatives.
- It can lead to a drop in accountability for operational performance.
- It can foster frustration among key stakeholders, including physicians, due to the absence of an important “go to” person for problem solving.
- It can require other leaders in the organization to step in and cover additional areas of responsibility at a time when the demands on your management team have never been greater.
ECG Management Consultants, Inc., can assist you by placing an experienced interim manager into your organization on a flexible part-time or full-time basis while you conduct a search for a permanent replacement. ECG’s highly tenured team of interim management staff brings a wide range of operational and leadership experience, in both clinical and nonclinical areas and from the supervisory level to the C-suite. Our consultants are action-oriented individuals who are experts at quickly assessing a situation and developing trusted relationships, all with the aim of keeping your organization moving forward while you work to fill your open position. As a result, it is common for our interim management assignments to include a rigorous assessment of operational performance and the development of action plans for implementation that position the incoming manager for quick success. Further, our interim managers have the backing of ECG’s 90-plus consultants nationwide, who bring a wealth of experience in operations improvement, finance, strategic planning, hospital/physician relations, and business development. Consequently, ECG’s interim management services will help ensure that your organization continues to progress and improve during the process of filling your open leadership position.
Selected Projects
Interim Chief Strategy Officer, Children’s Hospital Expand Minimize
ECG currently provides the interim chief strategy officer for a large, multisite children's hospital in the western United States. In the context of this role, ECG has supported the organization with 11 distinct engagements over the past several years, including developing an enterprise-wide 5-year strategic plan, establishing a medical foundation, planning for provider-based clinics, and conducting joint venture planning.
Interim Chief Financial Officer, Community Hospital Expand Minimize
ECG was engaged to provide turnaround management assistance for a community hospital in the Northwest. We provided management personnel to spearhead the finance organization, including an interim chief financial officer and revenue cycle director. During the course of the project, we:
- Identified cost reduction opportunities through the use of benchmarks and a review of expense trends.
- Evaluated key payor contracts to identify opportunities for improvement, and negotiated increases on the hospital’s behalf.
- Developed a daily dashboard reporting tool to keep hospital management apprised of key performance indicators.
- Redesigned business office processes to speed collections and improve the collection rate.
- Developed a departmental budget reporting tool to track areas not performing to budget and document specific corrective actions that managers will implement.
As a result of our efforts, the hospital’s financial performance improved: days in accounts receivable were reduced, the collection rate increased, key commercial payor rates were improved, and labor productivity increased.
Interim Administrative Director, Heart and Vascular Institute Expand Minimize
A three-hospital health system in the eastern United States engaged ECG to provide interim management services for its cardiovascular service line while the system conducted a search for a full-time administrative director. The fully integrated service line included three physician practices, two inpatient nursing units, several cardiac catheterization and interventional radiology labs, cardiothoracic and vascular surgery, noninvasive cardiac and vascular testing labs, nuclear imaging, and cardiac rehab. ECG placed an experienced interim director on site for a period of 6 months to oversee daily operations as well as to lead the process of developing a long-term strategic plan for the service line. As a result of our assistance, operational performance of the service line remained strong during the interim management period; a new cardiology physician practice was acquired and integrated into the service line; and plans were developed to initiate a new electrophysiology program, which are currently being implemented.
Interim Executive Director, Large Medical Foundation Expand Minimize
ECG recently assisted with the merger of two large West Coast medical foundations. The merger included reconstituting operating, governance, management, and compensation structures across the entire entity. Concurrent with the merger, the healthcare division of the merged entity was consolidated from three entities divisions [2/16/10, CJG: Repetition OK per JWL.]into one. To ensure effective consolidation, ECG served as interim executive director of the merged foundation for a period of 6 months.
