Quick Leonard Kieffer Recruits Chief Medical Officer at Penn State Hershey

October 19, 2016 – Executive search firm Quick Leonard Kieffer has recruited Thomas Tracy Jr. MD as chief medical officer at Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center in Hershey, PA. Managing partner Dr. Robert Kuramoto led the search.

In his new role, Dr. Tracy will be responsible for coordinating, developing, and implementing the management of clinical resources in the delivery of inpatient and outpatient care. He will engage with operational and clinical colleagues to improve care guidelines, quality, and standardization to help drive down the cost of care, while improving UHC and other quality benchmarks.

Dr. Tracy will also lead the identification and prioritization of opportunities to improve the quality and efficiency of care, and implement systems to demonstrate improvement in these areas, in addition to supervising the organization’s efforts to comply with external clinical accrediting agencies.

Broader Skill Sets

According to recruiters, the role of the chief medical officer has evolved in recent years, and organizations, as in this case, are looking for leaders with broader skill sets. Dr. Tracy seems to fit that bill. He is an accomplished clinician, researcher, and administrative leader who brings to the position significant clinical programmatic development experience, as well as experience navigating complex environments, developing relationships, and recruiting physicians.

Before joining Penn State Hershey, Dr. Tracy spent almost two decades with the Lifespan system and Brown University in Rhode Island. He joined Rhode Island Hospital in 1997 as surgeon-in-chief for the newly-formed Hasbro Children’s Hospital, where he expanded integrated specialty pediatric surgical care. In 2003, Dr. Tracy also became the vice chairman of the Department of Surgery at Brown University’s Alpert Medical School, with responsibility for all major recruitment, retention, and staffing plans for faculty across seven specialties and nine divisions, and for the academic development of over 270 faculty and divisional leaders, also serving as the director of the pediatric surgery residency program.

In 2012, in addition to retaining his two existing roles, Dr. Tracy became senior vice president and chief medical officer of Miriam Hospital and interim SVP and CMO of Rhode Island Hospital.

Penn State Hershey Medical Center is a 551-bed medical center served by over 1,100 physicians and other providers. In partnership with the Penn State College of Medicine, the medical center is recognized as one of the nation’s premier academic health centers.

Quick Leonard Kieffer specializes in the placement of executive level employees across the healthcare industry. It was established in 1999 by Roger Quick and Michael C. Kieffer. According to the firm, the healthcare sector is among the most rapidly growing employment fields. But the industry is in the midst of a turbulent transformation, making the need for proven and experienced boards and executive teams with vision and broadening skills more important than ever.

Tapping Leaders for Healthcare Companies

In response, Quick Leonard Kieffer has expanded its staff in recent months to support their efforts in tapping leaders for healthcare companies.

This past summer, the firm named Jake Barto as a partner. Mr. Barto has executed numerous senior level search assignments, assisting healthcare systems recruit chief executive officers as well as operational, financial, and clinical leaders. Among his clients: Trinity Health, Sanford Health, McLaren Health Care, and national & state associations, including ACHE and The Alabama Hospital Association. His career in executive search began in 2009 with Miller Resource Group in the Chicago suburbs, where he specialized in medical device, pharmaceutical, and healthcare assignments.

QLK recently appointed Scott Sammon as a partner in Chicago. He works with clients to manage C-level search assignments in the healthcare provider and not-for-profit sectors and has served as a consultant to both association and hospital boards and has acted as a facilitator to companies for board retreats. For the past five years, Mr. Sammon was managing director and head of the healthcare practice at Reilly Partners.

Quick Leonard Kieffer also added Patricia Hall as a managing partner. She is responsible for leading the expansion of the firm’s life sciences­­­ practice. Ms. Hall has over 20 years of experience focused on general management, commercial and operations leadership for the pharmaceutical, biotech, medical device and consumer health and wellness sectors. She has placed senior leaders into public organizations and has helped build executive talent pipelines for investor-backed startups and portfolio companies.

Contributed by Dale M. Zupsansky, Managing Editor, Hunt Scanlon Media