Chief Medical Operations Officer — Interim, Multi-Specialty Healthcare

The mandate

The incumbent medical operations leader resigned after the board challenged inconsistent patient flow and theatre utilisation across five hospitals. The vacancy lands during a rise in surgical demand, leaving site medical directors without one executive able to settle cross-hospital trade-offs.

The interim must start within three weeks and hold the seat for twelve months while an external search proceeds. The assignment ends after the permanent appointee has completed a six-week induction and accepted the stabilised operating dashboard.

Handover will be judged complete when elective cancellations are below four per cent for three consecutive months, average discharge time has improved by ninety minutes, and every facility is using the same morbidity, capacity and consultant-performance review.

The interim may redeploy clinical sessions, approve locum cover within the authorised monthly envelope, and direct corrective-action plans. Capital purchases above ₹2 crore, closure of a specialty, or separation of a senior consultant require committee approval; permanent appointments cannot be made by this office.

The brief excludes a hospital acquisition under separate diligence, renegotiation of insurer tariffs, and replacement of the electronic medical record. Those programmes may supply constraints, but they must not absorb the turnaround team.

Why this seat is open

The previous executive left with four weeks' notice after a disagreement on operating discipline. The chief executive needs an accountable clinical operator before the winter procedure peak. The board expects a permanent successor to be selected by month nine, without allowing the search to delay immediate correction.

What you will own

• Rebuild the daily bed, theatre and discharge control room, and publish one exception ledger for all five hospital chiefs.
• Decide the allocation of elective lists by surgeon, specialty and site within approved capacity and clinical-safety rules.
• Institute a monthly consultant scorecard covering outcomes, cancellations, documentation, complaints and contribution margin.
• Sign off ninety-day recovery plans for the two hospitals missing infection, waiting-time and utilisation thresholds.
• Establish an escalation protocol for ICU saturation, blood availability and unplanned theatre downtime, with named decision owners.
• Present the clinical-operating pack to the governance committee and record every variance, remedy and overdue action.
• Induct the permanent successor using a documented rhythm of business, risk register and site-by-site handover dossier.

Candidate qualifications

• Twenty-two or more years in hospital medicine and operations, including executive accountability across at least three tertiary facilities.
• A recognised medical qualification with current or previously held Indian registration, complemented by formal training in hospital administration.
• Evidence of raising theatre utilisation and shortening discharge cycles without deterioration in mortality, infection or readmission indicators.
• Direct experience governing senior consultants through transparent peer data, credentialing controls and difficult performance conversations.
• Fluency in hospital unit economics, manpower rostering, accreditation obligations and the clinical consequences of capacity decisions.
• Prior interim, integration or crisis assignment in which a stable operating system was transferred to a permanent executive.

Non-negotiables

• Able to be onsite in Mumbai within three weeks and travel weekly among the five facilities.
• No current paid relationship with a competing hospital network in western India.
• Willing to hold personal sign-off for clinical operating decisions within the delegated authority matrix.
• Available for a five-day exclusive assignment throughout the initial twelve-month term.

1. 49 words maximum. What is your earliest start date, and which current obligation could affect five-day availability in Mumbai?
2. 49 words maximum. Give the baseline and three-month result from a hospital-flow intervention you personally directed.
3. 49 words maximum. Which decision did you take against senior-clinician resistance, and what patient-safety evidence supported it?