Becker's Hospital Review

21 WOMEN'S LEADERSHIP 21 CEO / STRATEGY 5 big concerns for hospital CEOs in 2021 By Kelly Gooch and Morgan Haefner I n 2020, hospital CEOs faced a year like no other. ey battled an unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic and adjusted oper- ations to safely care for patients and staff in- fected with the virus, while ensuring routine medical services remained available. Early in the pandemic, many CEOs made the tough decision to furlough workers so their or- ganizations could remain financially stable as revenue decreased because of postponed elec- tive procedures. ey have been at the helm as their organizations pivoted toward virtual care and digital transformation as people stayed home during the public health crisis. ey also faced growing pressure to show that their or- ganizations were actively being anti-racist and improving health equity in their communities. CEOs still face tough decisions as the virus continues to spread nationwide, prompting organizations again to postpone elective care. ese decisions are still being made in 2021. Below are five of the biggest concerns for hos- pital CEOs in 2021, based on observations by the Becker's Hospital Review editorial team. 1. Distributing vaccines Distribution of COVID-19 vaccines to healthcare workers will continue to be a chal- lenge for hospital and health system leaders, especially as some employees turn it down. Institutions like Palo Alto, Calif.-based Stan- ford Medicine and Mount Sinai Health Sys- tem in New York City faced criticism for how they rolled out the vaccine to their employees. Some health systems have also considered the vaccines' potential side effects that could side- line workers and create staffing shortages. To help reduce the risk of shortages, health sys- tems are looking at various approaches, such as staggering the dates vaccines are given to workers and end-of-shi shots for workers. 2. Pandemic-fueled workforce short- ages, mistrust COVID-19 surges put hospital and health sys- tems' staffing to the test. It drove demand for healthcare professionals while simultaneously sidelining workers exposed to the virus, exac- erbating the issue. Healthcare workers have also protested during the pandemic, demanding their employers boost staffing and improve ac- cess to personal protective equipment. Health- care workers were the first group inoculated, and this likely will positively affect staffing levels in 2021. But hardships felt by hospital workers won't simply dissolve once the pandemic ends. In many cases, hospital and health system lead- ers will need to mend broken or tenuous rela- tionships with their workforce. 3. Trust in public health Public trust in experts, not only in the medi- cal field but across sectors, is eroding, accord- ing to a report in the Chicago Booth Review, a publication of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Polarization is one reason the gap between experts and nonex- perts is widening, and physicians' frustration with conspiracy theories is growing. In a re- cent example, Anthony Slonim, MD, CEO of Renown Health in Reno, Nev., publicly defended Renown's alternative COVID-19 unit aer a tweet shared by President Don- ald Trump falsely claimed it was "fake." e tweet is no longer available, but it was shared more than 28,000 times. Even as the pandem- ic subsides, hospital CEOs will face growing mistrust in public health coupled with an in- creasing presence of misinformation. 4. Equity and inclusion In the wake of the summer 2020 George Floyd protests, several executives from large health systems, including Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser Permanente and Chicago-based Com- monSpirit Health, used their platforms to deem racism a public health crisis and call for inclusivity. Many health system leaders vowed to prioritize equity and inclusion ef- forts at their organizations. In 2021, hospital and health system CEOs will face growing pressure from their workforce, boards and the public to hold fast to their commitments. 5. Bringing remote workers back to the office As COVID-19 spread across the U.S. in ear- ly 2020, hospitals and health systems adjusted their workforces. Many administrative workers who could work from home were instructed to do so, and they have remained remote. But organizations must look at how they may bring workers back to the office in a post-pandemic world. Providence, a 51-hospital health system based in Renton, Wash., for instance, finalized a post-COVID virtual work strategy for admin- istrative employees that sets July 1 as the earli- est that remote administrative employees can return to facilities and offices, unless they can't work productively from home. A few employ- ees will work on-site daily, and a few will work from home daily, but most of Providence's ad- ministrative workforce will work between two and four days a week from home. n Tenet CEO gets $9.6M payout after stock price hits $40 By Ayla Ellison T enet Executive Chair and CEO Ronald Rittenmeyer sold 408,526 shares of the Dallas-based company, according to a Dec. 14 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Mr. Rittenmeyer sold the shares Dec. 10 for an average price of $40 a share. The total sale was $16.3 million, ac- cording to GuruFocus. The proceeds of the sale of the op- tions to Mr. Rittenmeyer amounted to $9.6 million, or $5.8 million on an after-tax basis, Tenet spokesperson Lesley Bogdanow said in an email to Becker's Hospital Review. Mr. Rittenmeyer sold the shares on the same day Tenet an- nounced it was acquiring up to 45 ambulatory surgery cen- ters from Towson, Md.-based SurgCenter Development. The company's shares closed Dec. 10 at $42.78, up more than 22 percent from a day earlier, according to Yahoo Finance. The share price hitting $40 is what triggered the sale under a trading plan Mr. Rittenmeyer entered into earlier in 2020, Ms. Bogdanow said. "Mr. Rittenmeyer entered into a 10b5-1 trading plan ear- lier this year when he was not in possession of material, non-public information. The plan provided for the exer- cise and sale of options he received when he first joined as Interim CEO in 2017," Ms. Bogdanow said in an email to Becker's Hospital Review. "The share price trigger was set at $40, representing an over 50 percent increase in val- ue from the date he entered into the plan. Mr. Rittenmeyer had no control of the timing of the sale as it was based solely on the share price passing the $40 threshold." n

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