Chief Operating Officer - East Market

Essentia Health • Duluth, MN

10d • Onsite

About The Position

Essentia Health is hiring the operations executive for our East Market: nine hospitals across northeastern Minnesota and northwestern Wisconsin, from St. Mary’s Medical Center in Duluth, the region’s Level I trauma center, to critical access hospitals serving some of the most rural communities in the Upper Midwest, together with the clinics, post-acute services, and EMS operations connected to them. It is the largest operating portfolio in our system, and it reports to Essentia’s system Chief Operating Officer. The East Market COO owns the market’s performance and works daily with the system Chief Operating Officer, peer operations executives, and physician leaders. It is work for someone who has run many hospitals, not one; who has delivered quality and margin in the same year; and who is at their best leading through physicians, labor partners, and frontline teams.

Requirements

• Ten or more years of senior health care operations leadership in a complex system, at least five at the executive level.
• Results at scale in finance, operations, and clinical quality.
• Decisions on record that favored the larger organization over your own unit.
• Physician partnership that produced results, not just relationships.
• Leadership in a union environment, including through negotiations and hard moments.
• Range as a communicator: equally credible with frontline staff and a governing board.

Nice To Haves

• Operating experience across tertiary, community, and critical access settings.
• Command of Lean or a comparable improvement discipline, practiced rather than referenced.
• Multi-year change leadership with daily performance held steady throughout.
• A record of developing leaders who advanced.
• A leadership style at home in a mission-driven organization.

Responsibilities

• Run daily operations for the East Market’s hospitals, clinics, post-acute services, and EMS.
• Answer for the market’s performance: financial results, productivity, quality and safety, patient experience, and growth.
• Build common operating practices with peer operations executives across the system.
• Lead alongside physician and advanced practice leaders, and deliver clinical and operational results with them.
• Carry the labor relationship: durable, constructive relationships with our unions, in partnership with the Chief Human Resources Officer.
• Deliver major construction inside operating hospitals and clinics safely, on schedule, and on budget.
• Move care delivery toward value: access, affordability, and reliable follow-up after discharge.
• Build the leadership bench: hire, develop, and retain the operators who run the market.

Benefits

• medical, dental, vision, life, and disability insurance, along with supplemental options to fit your needs.
• 401(k) plan with employer contributions
• training, tuition reimbursement, and educational programs.
• flexible scheduling, generous time off, and wellness resources focused on your physical, mental, and emotional health.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Executive