Senior Vice President & Chief Operations Officer

Established in 1957, the medical center at the University of Kentucky is among the nation's largest and most active academic medical centers. On campus, the center includes major facilities of UK HealthCare®, the university's academic health system. UK HealthCare is operating 945 licensed beds spread across the flagship UK Albert B. Chandler Hospital, Kentucky Children’s Hospital and UK Good Samaritan Hospital, all located in Lexington.

In addition, the clinical enterprise also embraces clinical activities of the UK colleges of Medicine, Dentistry, Pharmacy, Nursing, Health Sciences, Public Health, and Social Work; and multidisciplinary centers such as the UK Markey Cancer Center (the state’s only NCI designated comprehensive cancer center), UK Gill Heart & Vascular Institute, Kentucky Neuroscience Institute and Barnstable Brown Diabetes Center. Outpatient facilities included under the UK HealthCare umbrella are 7 main clinic sites and 100-plus outreach clinics in Central and Eastern Kentucky.

In 2023, Robert DiPaola, MD, and Eric Monday, PhD, were appointed co-executive vice president for health affairs. Early in 2023 they led a refresh of UK HealthCare’s strategic plan to prioritize advancing subspecialty care, taking care of UK’s people and its community, and accentuating UK HealthCare’s uniqueness as an academic health system. A key feature of UK HealthCare’s leadership structure are triads of physician-nurse-administrator leaders reflecting a commitment to collaboration and working as a team to improve quality, safety and value.

Position description:

The University of Kentucky is seeking a dynamic leader to propel UK HealthCare to the next level of advanced medicine, continue to build on our extraordinary growth, and serve as the enterprise-wide Chief Operations Officer (COO). Reporting directly to the Co-Executive Vice Presidents for Health Affairs, the COO will be responsible for operationalizing UK HealthCare’s vision to become one of the nation’s best health systems.

The Chief Operations Officer (COO) will assume responsibility and accountability for the operations of UK HealthCare. The COO will also exercise operational oversight to ensure services are designed to meet the needs of patients, physicians, public, and partners. The COO will lead and direct other senior management and staff in support of the health system’s values and goals and work in a collaborative triad with the Chief Nurse Executive (CNE) and the Executive Chief Medical Officer (ECMO) to execute clinical and operational best practices throughout the healthcare enterprise. The COO must be able to lead and thrive in a complex, highly matrixed organization, quickly comprehending the multi-faceted impact of strategic decisions on a broad variety of stakeholders.  The position is responsible for implementing the UKHC strategic plan with the enterprise operations. The role includes broad organizational implications and complexity, characterized by substantial scope of responsibility. The successful candidate will be adept at balancing competing needs and make the best strategic decisions for UK HealthCare.

Qualifications:

• Master’s degree in healthcare, business or related field.
• 10+ years of experience at the administrative (C-suite) leadership level in a complex healthcare system.
• Operational, fiscal, and leadership skills with the ability to grow an organization and deliver results.
• Track record of developing and building operation systems of accountability.
• Ability to motivate and collaborate in a team environment with diverse groups of leaders.
• Strategic with broad understanding of emerging health care issues.
• Ability to work within matrixed environments.
• Commitment to the mission of teaching, research, service and creating high quality healthcare delivery.

Please submit resumes, inquiries, and nominations in confidence to:

Betsy Mullenix
Senior Search Associate
Grant Cooper | Diversified Search
[email protected]