Rudish Health Seeks Chief Nursing Officer for Brookdale University Hospital Medical Center

June 11, 2019 – As the life sciences sector continues to expand and reshape itself, vanguard organizations in the field are looking to bolster their leadership ranks. In demand: multi-skilled executives, physician leaders and nurses who can effect change on many levels. Of the four major C-suite roles in the typical hospital, the chief nursing officer has traditionally been the most difficult to secure, according to recruiters.

Recently, Boca Raton, FL-headquartered healthcare advisory and talent leadership firm Rudish Health was called in by Brookdale University Hospital Medical Center in Brooklyn, NY, to lead its search for a new chief nursing officer. Jessica Rudish, principal and vice president of client services, is leading the assignment.

Brookdale’s CNO is responsible for the practice of nursing by ensuring consistency in the standard of nursing care across all clinical settings, said Rudish Health. As a member of the senior leadership team, the CNO supports and facilitates an interdisciplinary team approach to the overall delivery of care to patients, families and the community. This includes creating an environment in which collaboration is valued and excellence in clinical care and education is promoted and achieved. The CNO, in partnership with the chief medical officer, leads and supports quality, safety and innovation initiatives.

Brookdale University Hospital Medical Center wants an executive with 10 years of nursing experience and at least seven years in a nursing leadership role, said the search firm. The winning candidate will have experience in healthcare administration in a large and complex setting. Recent hospital/health system experience with direct responsibility for cost/revenue centers, experience designing business plans is also desired. Brookdale seeks someone with the ability to inspire staff and align them with the medical center’s transformation program. This executive should have strong financial/analytical skills, verbal/written communication skills, problem identification and resolution skills, decision-making ability and the ability to develop/mentor management team.

Serving Brooklyn

Brookdale, along with Interfaith Medical Center and Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center, are co-operated as One Brooklyn Health System Inc. (OBHS). OBHS seeks to preserve and enhance access to healthcare services in Brooklyn by coalescing the separate hospitals and their governed affiliates into a sustainable, quality integrated health system. Brookdale is one of Brooklyn’s largest non-profit voluntary teaching hospitals and includes a large full-service emergency department and one of New York State’s 12 Level II Trauma Centers. It provides numerous outpatient ambulatory care services both on campus and off-site facilities.

Rudish Health provides major health systems, professional services firms and healthcare technology companies with strategic advisory and talent leadership solutions. The firm can also help emergent companies define their growth strategies and cultivate market connections.

With nearly 10 years of strategy and operations consulting experience in the healthcare sector, Ms. Rudish has significant expertise in corporate and business unit strategic planning, customer strategy, M&A strategy and physician enterprise operations. Prior to joining Rudish Health Solutions, she was a senior manager at Deloitte Consulting, where she served health care provider and health plan clients, delivering both strategy and operations engagements.

Finding CNO Talent

CNOs have a variety of duties, depending on the facility where they work. But most importantly, the position calls for supervising nurses and nurse managers. CNOs also oversee design and implementation of patient-care delivery, and serve as leaders in their facility’s efforts to maintain outcome levels. They are some of the most sought after and highly visible leaders in the hospital and healthcare environment.

An expanding number of search firms have been working with healthcare organizations to find chief nursing officers in recent months. Here’s a look at a sampling taken from the Hunt Scanlon Media archives:

Phillips, DiPisa & Associates, an executive search firm serving the healthcare and life sciences sectors, has been retained by Methodist University Hospital in Memphis, TN, and Regional West Health Services in Scottsbluff, NE to find chief nursing officers. Leading both assignments is executive recruiter Beth Ross. CNOs have a variety of duties, depending on the facility where they work.

B.E. Smith, a healthcare-focused executive search firm, has been selected to find new CNOs for Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas and the University of New Mexico Hospitals. Senior executive consultant Richard Heishman is leading the assignments for the recruitment firm. Founded in 1978, Lenexa, KS-based B.E. Smith is a full-service healthcare interim leadership placement and executive search firm. 

Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief; Dale M. Zupsansky, Managing Editor; Stephen Sawicki, Managing Editor; and Andrew W. Mitchell, Managing Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media