B.E. Smith Tapped by St. Lawrence Health System to Find Chief Nursing Officer

November 22, 2016 – Healthcare-focused executive search firm B.E. Smith has been retained by St. Lawrence Health System to lead its search for a new chief nursing officer.
Serving as a mentor for clinical leaders, the incoming CNO will be a servant leader and create a culture of accountability and transparency. The executive will be responsible for all activities and functions of the nursing department, providing support to advance quality of care and the patient experience. Other key responsibilities include fostering strong relationships with local academic institutions, building high performing teams and ensuring regulatory readiness.
St. Lawrence Health is comprised of Canton-Potsdam Hospital, Canton-Potsdam Hospital Foundation, Gouverneur Hospital, a physician group and the Accountable Care Organization of North Country. The health system is the largest employer in St. Lawrence County, New York with over 1,200 employees. Canton-Potsdam Hospital, the system’s flagship hospital, is a not-for-profit, 94-bed community healthcare facility.
Founded in 1978, B.E. Smith is a full-service healthcare interim leadership placement and executive search firm. For nearly a decade, it has been recognized annually by Modern Healthcare as one of the top search firms in its sector. The firm places interim leaders and executives across all healthcare settings, including acute care hospitals, academic medical and children’s hospitals, physician practices, and post-acute care providers.
Currently, B.E. Smith is leading CNO searches for C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital, Mohawk Valley Health System, PMH Medical Center and Clovis Community Medical Center. Earlier in the year, AMN Healthcare Services, a provider of healthcare workforce solutions and staffing services, acquired B.E. Smith for $160 million in cash.
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Chief Nursing Officers In Demand
CNOs have a wide variety of duties that may depend on the particular facility they work at, but most importantly, the position is responsible for supervising nurses and nurse managers. CNOs also oversee design and implementation of patient care delivery, and serve as leaders in their facility’s pursuit to maintain outcome levels.
“Of the four major C-suite roles in the typical hospital, the chief nursing officer has traditionally been the most difficult to secure,” said Ed Fry, president of FaithSearch Partners, a search firm that serves small independent hospitals to large academic medical centers to integrated healthcare systems.
“I believe this is the result of a multi-generational demand-supply curve imbalance,” he said. More recently, he added, the demand for strategic, financially astute leaders with deep clinical management experience has continued to outweigh the supply.
A handful of search firms have been working with healthcare organizations to find chief nursing officer in recent months. Here is a look at a few from the Hunt Scanlon archives:
- Tyler & Company was recently retained by Nobilis Health Corporation to lead its search for new CNOs for First Surgical and Hermann Drive Surgical Hospitals. Assistant vice president Kyle Wiederhold is leading the searches. The selected candidates will provide oversight for nursing administration and other assigned departments and be responsible for defining and maintaining the standards of nursing for the hospital.
- Witt/Kieffer placed Sharon H. Pappas PhD as the new CNO of Atlanta-headquartered Emory Healthcare. Karen Otto, managing partner and practice leader, academic medicine and health sciences, led the search along with associate Hans Henson and senior partner Rachel Polhemus. Dr. Pappas came to Emory from Centura Health in Denver, Colorado, where she currently serves as the system’s chief nurse executive and the CNO for Porter Adventist Hospital.
- FaithSearch Partners recruited Elsie Graces as CNO of Central Texas Medical Center. Senior vice presidents Jim Boyle and Ivan Bartolome led the assignment. Ms. Graves most recently served as CNO at CHRISTUS Santa Rosa Hospital – Westover Hills in San Antonio.
- Four Corners Group tapped Shannon Landry as CNO of Bluewater Health in a search process that included 80 potential candidates. Ms. Landry most recently served as CNO at Stevenson Memorial Hospital. There she also held the roles of vice president of clinical and paramedical patient services.
Contributed by Dale M. Zupsansky, Managing Editor, Hunt Scanlon Media