Novia Solutions was asked to find a permanent candidate to fill an Executive position overseeing Case Management across multiple sites within a health system. The role was not new but it was re-shaped in terms of scope and responsibilities as part of a broader case management consulting project and had been filled by an Interim for several months. The client was a multi-site community-based health system in the Southeast with over $2B in revenue and a flagship acute care hospital of 600+ beds.
The Challenge
The ideal candidate would possess a unique blend of domain expertise and high emotional IQ. They would need to be an expert in all areas of case management – utilization management, discharge planning, denials management, transitions of care, readmissions management, length of stay management, patient bed capacity, working with providers in the community – and be a skilled tactician, politician, and negotiator to deftly navigate among different sized hospitals and reporting structures as well as executive management, while simultaneously being a master influencer with the physicians, most of whom were not on staff but instead were independent private practice clinicians.
Novia provided a slate of highly qualified candidates accompanied by detailed measurement tools which made it easy for the client to assess and compare candidates across a broad spectrum of criteria at-a-glance.
Due to Novia’s unique formula for matching talent with opportunity and uncanny ability to uncover the key qualities that enable candidates to “fit like a glove” with the client’s culture, Novia was asked to also fill several other leadership positions that closely interacted with this role.
The Results
- The candidate placed by Novia has transformed the role and the perception of the entire case management team, gaining credibility, and developing partnerships with physicians through garnering their trust and respect
- The physicians now come to the Executive for consultation when they have a problem with a patient and ask for help to continue moving the patient through the care continuum – this did not happen in the past
- The physicians and the case management team now work together to discharge patients more timely, resulting in reduced length of stay (LOS) and improved patient throughput
- The Executive has implemented multi-disciplinary Transition of Care rounds to engage entire care team in determining best course of action for patients with lengthy LOS and help patients continue along the care continuum
- The Executive has ensured appropriate patient status (inpatient vs. observation) by being a champion for case managers, UR staff and physician advisors to effectively utilize admission criteria for patients to obtain & maintain inpatient status when appropriate
Utilizing a variety of techniques such as behavioral and scenario-based interviewing, coupled with our proprietary tools for reviewing each candidate’s qualifications at-a-glance, Novia consistently matches candidates to both the position and to the client to deliver the highest quality candidates at the best value. Not only do our candidates “fit like a glove”, they produce significant outcomes that positively impact a hospital’s key performance indicators and financial metrics. In this case, the Executive placed by Novia significantly transformed the client’s case management practices and helped move them forward to achieve results which improved working relationships amongst clinical staff to achieve patient outcomes, and benefitted the hospital’s bottom line.
