Essentia Health

Chief Operating Officer - East Market

Essentia Health$412K — $500K+*
Hospitals & Medical Centers
8 - 10 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • Graduate degree in health care administration, business administration, nursing, or related field is required.
  • Ten or more years of senior health care operations leadership experience, including five at the executive level.
  • Proven results in finance, operations, and clinical quality at scale.
  • Experience with effective physician partnerships resulting in measurable outcomes.
  • Leadership experience in a unionized environment, particularly during negotiations.

Responsibilities

  • Run daily operations for hospitals, clinics, post-acute services, and EMS in the East Market.
  • Ensure the market's performance across financial, productivity, quality and safety, patient experience, and growth metrics.
  • Develop and standardize operating practices with peer executives across the system.
  • Collaborate with physician and advanced practice leaders to achieve clinical and operational goals.
  • Foster strong labor relations with unions in partnership with the Chief Human Resources Officer.
  • Manage major construction projects in hospitals and clinics, ensuring safety, schedules, and budgets are met.
  • Promote care delivery focused on value, including access, affordability, and post-discharge follow-up.

Benefits

  • On-site role based in Duluth, with regular engagement across East Market communities.
  • No weekend or holiday work obligations, facilitating work-life balance.
Full Job Description
Building Location:
Building D - Miller Dwan Medical Center - EH Duluth

Department:


Job Description:
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.

Education Qualifications:

Graduate degree in health care administration, business administration, nursing, or a related field

The Role:
  • 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.


Required Experience:
  • 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.


Preferred Qualifications:
  • 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.


Work Location:
  • This role is on-site, based in Duluth, Minnesota, with regular presence across East Market communities.


Licensure/Certification Qualifications:

FTE:
1

Possible Remote/Hybrid Option:

Shift Rotation:
Day Rotation (United States of America)

Shift Start Time:

Shift End Time:

Weekends:

Holidays:
No

Call Obligation:
No

Union:

Union Posting Deadline:

Compensation Range:
$412,672.00 - $619,008.00

About Essentia Health

Essentia Health is an integrated health system serving patients in Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota, and Idaho. It is guided by the values of quality, hospitality, respect, justice, stewardship, and teamwork. Essentia Health provides a wide range of medical services, including primary care, specialty care, hospital care, and long-term care. It also operates pharmacies, fitness centers, and other health-related businesses. Essentia Health has over 14,000 employees, including more than 1,800 physicians and advanced practitioners.
Learn more about Essentia Health
Size
14,000 employees
Industry
Net Income
$100 million
Founded
2004
5 Year Trend
+5%
Revenue
$5 billion

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