Tyler & Company Seeks Chief Medical Officer for Peterson Health

November 11, 2020 – Over the past few months, numerous healthcare organizations have turned to executive search firms to find new chief medical officers. In the era of COVID-19 we can expect this to be another burgeoning area for executive search firms. Atlanta-based executive recruitment firm Tyler & Company was recently called in by Peterson Health in Kerrville, TX, to lead its search for a new chief medical officer. Vice president Marion Spears Karr is heading the assignment.

Tyler & Company said that this is an “outstanding opportunity to impact an organization and community on a large scale. With the heightened need for health systems to be nimble, visionary and forward thinking, this position will influence a committed medical staff, executive team and the community at-large.”

The CMO works in collaboration with and at the direction of the CEO, and functions as a key leader of the Peterson Health management team. The CMO, along with other members of the management team, will provide periodic updates to the board of directors regarding quality, performance improvement and medical staff activities. This physician executive will supervise the medical staff office, peer review, utilization review, quality improvement, and Peterson Medical Associates (PMA) physician group. Other departments that the CMO will impact are patient experience and physician recruiting.

The ideal candidate will possess a minimum of five years of clinical practice experience, as well as demonstrated medical staff leadership experience. Experience as a CMO is required. “In addition, experience in the formulation and implementation of clinical practice guidelines, leadership development and performance improvement activities is required,” the search firm said. “The CMO will help physicians further embrace patient satisfaction initiatives. The ideal candidate must understand the relationship between patient satisfaction and quality and safety, embrace the EMR and become a subject-matter expert/resource.” The selected candidate will also possess a doctor of medicine degree or doctor of osteopathic medicine degree from an accredited school of medicine. He or she should be able to become licensed to practice medicine in Texas. A master’s degree in public health, business or health administration or related field is preferred.

Peterson Health is a private, not-for-profit community-based healthcare system located in the heart of the Texas Hill Country in Kerrville. For over 70 years, Peterson Health has provided exceptional, compassionate, patient-centered care. The organization is an independent, not-for-profit health care organization, covering over 100,000 square miles. With net revenues of more than $125 million and about 1,000 FTEs and over 250 medical professionals, Peterson Health has been the largest employer in Kerr County for decades.

Healthcare Recruiters

Tyler & Company is the healthcare executive search arm of Jackson Healthcare. The firm specializes in recruiting leadership talent for healthcare, academic medicine, and health and life sciences organizations. Since 1978, its recruiters have placed thousands of C-suite executives, physician leaders and healthcare administrators health systems, hospitals, physician group practices and academic medical centers.

With 30-plus years of experience in healthcare executive recruiting and talent acquisition, Mr. Spears Karr brings a distinguished set of skills in leading recruitment teams that specialize in nursing leadership, C-level, vice president and senior director-level searches. He has developed an understanding of the complex challenges facing healthcare and nursing leaders in the current market.

Chief Medical Officers

According to recruiters, the role of the chief medical officer has evolved in recent years, and organizations are looking for leaders with broader skill-sets. “Today’s CMO needs to have professional experience gathered from different players in the drug development industry,” said Marc Salzberg, CEO of Airway Therapeutics. “He or she needs to understand the objectives of the key players in the field—academia / clinical practice, the pharma industry, regulatory authorities and third-party vendors, such as contract research organizations—in order to successfully cooperate with those partners.”

Over the past few months, numerous healthcare organizations have turned to executive search firms to find new CMOs. And in the era of COVID-19 we can expect this to be another burgeoning area for executive search firms.

Here is a sampling from the Hunt Scanlon Media archives:

Life sciences-focused search firm Coulter Partners recently assisted Sequana Medical in the recruitment of Oliver Gödje as its new chief medical officer. He replaces Gijs Klarenbeek, who remains with Sequana Medical as senior medical advisor. “I am very pleased to welcome Dr. Gödje to Sequana Medical and thank the team at Coulter Partners for their professional support in achieving this key appointment,” said Ian Crosbie, CEO of Sequana Medical. “Oliver’s extensive clinical experience, particularly in the heart and liver space, and his international business expertise will be invaluable as we approach a number of key milestones in our alfapump U.S. NASH and alfapump DSR heart failure development programs.

Life sciences-focused search firm Slone Partners placed Mike Spigarelli as chief medical officer of Lumen Bioscience in Seattle, WA. “As an extremely skilled industry leader with three decades of medical, pharmaceutical and academic experience, Mike Spigarelli has a thorough understanding of clinical affairs, drug development and regulatory strategy,” said Tara Kochis-Stach, president of Slone Partners. “He will be a tremendously valuable addition to the Lumen Bio executive team at a time when the company is advancing a number of exciting new investigational biologic drugs.”

COORS Leadership recently placed Trina D. Abla as chief medical officer of Mercy Catholic Medical Center in Pennsylvania. Dr. Abla most recently was chief quality officer and associate CMO at Penn State Health St. Joseph. Founded in 1999 by Cheryl Coors, COORS Leadership Capital is a retained, certified woman-owned small business specializing in consulting and executive search services.

Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, OH, tapped Cejka Search to lead its search for a new CMO. Paul Esselman, president and managing director at Cejka, is leading the assignment. Reporting to the CEO, the CMO has overall responsibility for the quality of patient care delivered throughout Children’s Hospital and its subsidiaries, said Cejka Executive Search.