More health systems embrace dual roles for C-suite executives

Editor's Note: 

Stacking additional responsibilities and titles atop pre-existing leadership responsibilities is becoming more common among health system executives, according to a January 24 report in Becker’s Hospital Review. Not including the most obvious overlapping pairings, such as chief medical officer and chief medical informatics officers, the most common parings include:

• chief quality officer-chief compliance officer
• chief nursing officer-COO
• general counsel or chief legal officer-chief compliance officer
• chief medical officer-chief quality officer

Reasons for dual roles include improving efficiency and fully leveraging people’s skills, such as when a chief quality officers take on compliance functions or a chief legal officer plays a dual role as a chief human resources officer. The practice is said to be particularly popular among smaller organizations with fewer executives.