Before the pandemic, a majority of U.S. healthcare industry leaders—including nearly half of the nation’s hospital boards—said their organization did not have a formal succession plan in place. Those who did have plans rarely revisited them, rarely updated them. Additionally, very few CEOs report that they had picked a successor.
On today’s episode of Next Up, we will be speaking with Susan DeVore and Michael Alkire of the healthcare improvement company, Premier. Premier was founded in 1967. It has a network of more than 4,100 member hospitals and health systems. And the company’s Quality Improvement Collaborative includes hospitals from 37 states. It’s saved more than 200,000 lives — and $18 billion—over the last 9 years.
Susan is the current CEO, and she’ll be starting her transition to retirement in May before officially stepping down in June. Her successor is Michael Alkire, who began working with Premier in 2003, and he’s been serving as president since 2019.