by Katie Nunn, MBA, CMPE
When hiring a medical practice CEO or administrator, it can be hard to know where to start. The medical practice CEO that the group is trying to hire will have skills that everyone else in the group is lacking, which is why the group needs this candidate. This makes it hard for the practice to assess these skills. Unlike when a medical professional like a doctor or nurse is hiring another doctor or nurse, they already have a sense of what the ideal candidate’s skills should be, what a good resume looks like, and how to “talk shop” with them.
Unfortunately, often administrators and doctors almost speak different languages. The jargon is much different and can be filled with an alphabet soup of acronyms. No one likes to admit that they don’t know what you’re talking about, so often doctors nod their heads and feign understanding to save face when hiring for a medical practice. It’s very natural and understandable; however, it is also very dangerous. This is candidate may be the future leader of the company. It is imperative that the physicians feel that the candidate has the skills required to perform the job and lead the group. 
Assessing those skills is difficult but it can be done with a systematic interviewing process. People that don’t have a lot of experience interviewing candidates will often spend 75% of the interview time talking about the company and the job. This should be reversed. The interviewer, should spend 75% of the time listening to the candidate answer questions. The interviewer should have a list of well thought out questions prepared in advance.
These questions should also be general in nature. They cannot be specific questions about the medical practice. The candidate will not know enough about the practice to answer specific questions and frankly, if they do try to answer specific questions about the practice, it is a red flag. The only appropriate answer to a specific question like that would be something along the lines of: “I would have to learn more about the practice before I could answer that”.
Some good questions for hiring a medical practice CEO:
- Can you describe your leadership style and describe a time that exemplifies this style?
- Can you describe your management style and describe a time that exemplifies this style?
- What are your team building skills and can you give us some examples of things you have done in the past?
- If you could create an ideal company culture, what would it be and how would you promote that culture?
- How do you envision interacting with varying level of staff? For example: physicians and medical assistants
- In what kind of environment do you excel?
- What are your three biggest accomplishments?
- Tell us a few things you like and a few things you dislike about your current position.
- Can you describe a time when you had to have a difficult conversation with someone and how you handled it?
- What major threats and opportunities do you foresee for healthcare? How do you plan to handle them?
The Interview Process for Hiring a Medical Practice CEO
The practice should have someone in charge of reviewing resumes and prescreening the candidates on the phone. This can be a very time-consuming process, but it helps in the long run because bringing everyone in for an in-person interview can waste a lot of time as well. The in-person interviews need to be structured. If it is a large group, consider forming a committee or panel that will be the interviewers. This panel should be consistent with each candidate as much as possible. Having different people interview different candidates makes it hard to compare the candidates accurately.
Lastly, after the panel has talked with several candidates, the top few can move on to meet more people in the group. It is also important to be timely with this process as well. Even though it is a lot to get through, if it drags on too long, the practice will risk losing good candidates who may find other positions.
It is also a good idea to keep in contact with the candidates for your medical practice CEO position. Let them know where they are in the process. When on a job search, no news typically means bad news, so if the practice is still interested in the medical practice CEO candidate, tell the candidate that and let them know where the practice is in the process and when they should expect to hear back. Also, somewhere early in the interviewing process, the practice needs to ask the candidate about his or her salary expectations. If the candidate’s salary requirements are 50% more than what the practice has budgeted, it might not make sense to continue with the process.
Checking References
Another vital part of hiring a medical practice CEO is checking references. Talk to people that have worked with the candidate in the past. Ask them for specific examples of the positive attributes of this person. Times they have seen this candidate in action. References can be checked while the candidate is moving through the process. It can often take a while to get in touch with people; therefore, it is not advisable to wait until the group is ready to make a job offer to check reference. Consider placing that step immediately after the first in person interview or even after the phone interview to make sure it doesn’t slow the process down.
Making a Job Offer
Once the group has decided on a candidate for their medical practice CEO, they are ready to make an offer. Yeah! Typically, it is a good idea to call the candidate and tell them the offer. Do not expect them to respond right then and there, but that does happen sometimes. It doesn’t mean anything bad if the person wants to think about it, but the person making the offer does want to set up a time frame when they expect to hear back.
2-3 days is a reasonable amount of time to allow the person to talk with their family and decide on accepting the position or not. The practice should follow up the phone call with a written letter of offer. It is a good idea to include a summary of the benefits that go along with the position as well so the candidate can see the total package of salary and benefits.
Getting Help
Hiring for a medical practice CEO is a tedious process, but it is worth every cent and minute the practice puts into it. If the practice can’t make this process happen with the resources it has or simply doesn’t have the time, then it would be smart to get help. A healthcare consultant, such as Bright Ideas Medical Consultant, would be ideal in helping recruit for this position. There are search firms out there too. That could be a more expensive route to take, but may be worth looking into as well. But again, the wrong person leading a company can be disastrous for a medical practice, so be willing to invest in the process for success.