With the average hospital CEO tenure at 4.8 years, succession planning is no longer optional. It is a core leadership responsibility. Yet too many organizations still treat it as a late-stage conversation, a reactive scramble that starts when departure is already in view.
In a recent episode of the Healthcare Plus Podcast, Quint Studer talks with Mark Clement, retiring president and CEO of TriHealth in Cincinnati, and Dr. Chris Reilly, industrial psychologist at Sperduto & Associates, about what it looks like to do succession planning right. What emerges is not just a case study but a replicable framework, built over a decade, that any healthcare leader can learn from.
Start before you think you need to. Clement began thinking about succession before his first day at TriHealth. At 61, stepping into what he anticipated would be his final CEO role, he made an early promise to the board: He would leave the organization better and give them strong internal candidates to consider. That promise shaped every leadership decision he made over the next 11 years. He identified about five potential successors over roughly a decade, kept the process confidential, and set one non-negotiable expectation: The fastest way to be disqualified was to make it a competitive process. None did, and all five are still at TriHealth today.
Do not confuse current performance with future potential. Dr. Reilly explains why gut instinct and performance reviews are not enough. Self-awareness is consistently one of the biggest differentiators in whether people succeed after a promotion. The assessment process at Sperduto goes well beyond the visible track record: structured interviews tracing developmental patterns; four psychometric tools; and a 360 survey drawing from direct reports, peers, and senior leaders. The goal is to separate what is changeable through coaching from what is fixed by nature, and to determine whether a candidate genuinely fits the culture and complexity of the role. (Clement and Reilly spent three months defining the CEO role at TriHealth before assessing a single candidate.)
Turn the assessment into action. After each candidate was assessed, Clement, Reilly, and the candidate met together to review findings. Each person then drafted their own development plan. The three parties agreed on two to five objectives, reviewed progress quarterly, and repeated annual updates over three to four years. Reilly’s broader approach is deliberately focused: Identify the three things that, if improved, will most advance a leader’s career. Then track progress with both qualitative coaching and measurable outcomes.
Bring the board along in phases. Clement describes a three-phase process: building awareness, formalizing the process through executive sessions and a succession committee, and finally moving to endorsement. Three years before his retirement, he promoted top candidate Terri Hanlon-Bremer into the COO role and gave her regular board visibility. When he announced his retirement, the board discussion lasted about 15 minutes.
Build guardrails so culture does not drift. Drawing on Jim Collins and Jerry I. Porras’s Built to Last framework, Clement developed a 16-question culture-monitoring tool deployed across TriHealth’s 900 leaders, physicians, and team members. Results have consistently landed between 4.1 and 4.5, with responses from leaders and frontline staff remarkably aligned. “Cultures atrophy,” Clement says. “They drift.” The tool creates early detection, a way to correct course before drift becomes damage.
Succession planning is one of the highest-leverage things a leader can do, and one of the most frequently deferred. TriHealth shows what’s possible when you start early, build structure, develop people honestly, and give boards the data they need to act with confidence.
Succession Planning Done Right: Culture, Continuity, and the CEO Transition at TriHealth shares more insights on succession planning, leadership assessment, and culture continuity in healthcare. Click here to listen!
