Chief Operating Officer (COO)

Job Overview:

Function: Hospital Operations & Business Leadership

Reporting To: Chief Executive Officer

Role Level: Executive Leadership

• ROLE PURPOSE
  
  

The Chief Operating Officer (COO) will be responsible for the overall operational leadership, performance, patient experience, financial performance and sustainable growth of the hospital. The COO will translate the organisation's vision and strategic objectives into measurable operational outcomes and will provide leadership across clinical support services, nursing, patient services, front office, contact centre, diagnostics, pharmacy, facilities, biomedical engineering, housekeeping, security, procurement, supply chain, HR, IT, quality, patient experience and other hospital functions in close coordination with the Medical Leadership.

The COO Will Establish a Culture Of:

• Patient-centricity
• Clinical and operational excellence
• Accountability
• Service excellence
• Quality and patient safety
• Financial discipline
• Data-driven decision making
• Employee engagement
• Continuous improvement
  
  

The role is expected to operate as the integrator between clinical, operational, financial and strategic functions of the hospital.

• KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES
  
  

Overall Hospital Operations: Provide overall leadership for the day-to-day functioning of the hospital and ensure seamless coordination between clinical and non-clinical departments.

Key Responsibilities Include:

• Ensure smooth 24×7 hospital operations.
• Establish operating standards across all departments.
• Monitor hospital capacity, patient flow and resource utilisation.
• Drive operational productivity and efficiency.
• Identify bottlenecks and implement corrective actions.
• Establish daily, weekly and monthly operational review mechanisms.
• Ensure timely escalation and closure of operational issues.
• Develop and monitor hospital-wide SOPs, policies and workflows.
• Ensure operational readiness of new departments, services and facilities.
• Build a culture of ownership and measurable accountability among HODs.
• P&L AND FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT
  
  

The COO will have strong accountability for the hospital's financial performance in partnership with the CFO/Finance function.

Responsibilities:

• Develop and execute annual operating plans and budgets.
• Drive revenue growth and profitable utilisation of hospital capacity.
• Monitor EBITDA, revenue, cost and productivity indicators.
• Improve bed occupancy and Average Length of Stay (ALOS).
• Improve OT, ICU, diagnostics and other asset utilisation.
• Monitor ARPOB/ARPP and other relevant hospital financial metrics.
• Control operating expenditure without compromising patient safety or quality.
• Review manpower productivity and departmental cost structures.
• Drive procurement and vendor cost optimisation.
• Monitor revenue leakage and process gaps.
• Review insurance, TPA and corporate business performance.
• Participate in capital expenditure planning and ROI evaluation.
• BUSINESS GROWTH & HOSPITAL DEVELOPMENT
  
  

Lead initiatives that increase the hospital's market presence, patient volumes and service portfolio.

Responsibilities:

• Develop hospital growth plans in collaboration with CEO/MD.
• Identify opportunities for new specialties, services and centres of excellence.
• Develop physician engagement and retention strategies.
• Strengthen referral networks.
• Develop corporate, insurance and TPA relationships.
• Support international patient / medical tourism initiatives where applicable.
• Drive outreach, community engagement and healthcare camps.
• Analyse competitor positioning and local market dynamics.
• Develop strategies for improving new-patient acquisition.
• Improve repeat utilisation and patient retention.
• Support strategic partnerships, alliances and expansion initiatives.
• PATIENT EXPERIENCE & SERVICE EXCELLENCE
  
  

Make patient experience a measurable hospital-wide operating discipline.

Responsibilities:

• Establish hospital-wide patient experience standards.
• Monitor patient satisfaction/NPS/feedback indicators.
• Strengthen Contact Centre, CRM and patient relationship management.
• Establish structured grievance management and escalation mechanisms.
• Ensure complaints are analysed through RCA and CAPA.
• Monitor patient journey across OPD, IPD, Emergency, Diagnostics, Pharmacy and Discharge.
• Reduce waiting times and patient inconvenience.
• Improve communication between patients, attendants and hospital teams.
• Establish service recovery mechanisms for critical complaints.
• Drive mystery audits and patient journey audits.
• Ensure patient feedback is converted into operational improvements.
• CLINICAL OPERATIONS & PATIENT SAFETY
  
  

The COO will work in close partnership with the Medical Superintendent and Nursing Leadership.

Responsibilities:

• Facilitate coordination between clinical and non-clinical functions.
• Support implementation of clinical governance frameworks.
• Monitor clinical support processes and operational barriers.
• Ensure availability of critical resources for clinical services.
• Monitor patient safety indicators in partnership with Quality and Medical teams.
• Support incident reporting, RCA and CAPA.
• Ensure timely resolution of operational issues affecting patient care.
• Support implementation and maintenance of NABH/JCI or applicable accreditation standards.
• Ensure emergency preparedness and disaster management systems.
• Monitor infection-control related operational requirements.
• QUALITY, ACCREDITATION & COMPLIANCE
  
  

Drive a culture of continuous quality improvement.

Responsibilities:

• Lead operational preparedness for NABH/JCI and other applicable accreditations.
• Ensure departmental compliance with hospital policies.
• Establish compliance dashboards.
• Monitor internal audit findings.
• Ensure timely closure of NCs, observations and CAPAs.
• Strengthen documentation and process adherence.
• Monitor statutory and regulatory compliance in partnership with relevant functions.
• Ensure hospital licences, registrations and statutory requirements are appropriately tracked.
• Establish an organisation-wide risk management framework.
• Culture & Organizational Effectiveness
  
  

Build a high-performance hospital leadership culture.

• Develop organisational structure and manpower plans.
• Establish productivity norms for departments.
• Participate in recruitment of senior leadership positions.
• Develop performance management systems.
• Establish departmental KPIs and KRAs.
• Drive leadership development and succession planning.
• Monitor employee engagement and attrition.
• Develop accountability mechanisms for HODs.
• Strengthen cross-functional collaboration.
• Promote a culture of respect, discipline, transparency and patient-centricity.
• TECHNOLOGY & DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
  
  

Lead operational adoption of healthcare technology in partnership with CIO/IT.

• Ensure effective utilisation of HIS/EMR/CRM platforms.
• Drive digital patient journey initiatives.
• Establish hospital-wide operational dashboards.
• Promote data-driven decision making.
• Integrate Contact Centre, CRM, HIS and patient feedback systems.
• Monitor system adoption and data quality.
• Identify opportunities for automation.
• Drive digital registration, appointment, communication and follow-up initiatives.
• Ensure technology projects deliver measurable operational benefits.
• CONTACT CENTRE & CRM GOVERNANCE
  
  

The COO will provide executive oversight of patient communication channels.

• Contact Centre performance
• Appointment conversion.
• Call abandonment.
• Response time.
• Patient Grievance Cell
• Escalation management.
• Outbound campaigns.
• Patient follow-up.
• CRM utilisation.
• Lead management.
• Doctor/service enquiries.
• Feedback and grievance management.
  
  

The COO should ensure that the Contact Centre operates as a bloodline of the hospital and patient-access & service excellence enablement function

• SUPPLY CHAIN, PROCUREMENT & VENDOR MANAGEMENT
  
  

Ensure availability of critical materials and services while maintaining financial discipline.

Responsibilities:

• Monitor procurement efficiency.
• Review vendor performance.
• Establish vendor SLAs and KPIs.
• Drive strategic sourcing and cost optimisation.
• Monitor inventory levels and stock-outs.
• Ensure critical medical and non-medical supplies are available.
• Review contract performance.
• Strengthen vendor governance.
• Reduce wastage, leakage and avoidable expenditure.
• FACILITIES & INFRASTRUCTURE
  
  

Ensure safe, reliable and patient-friendly hospital infrastructure.

• Engineering
• Biomedical equipment
• HVAC
• Electrical systems
• Medical gases
• Fire and life safety
• Security
• Housekeeping
• Laundry
• Food services
• Parking
• Waste management
• Pest control
• Preventive maintenance
  
  

The COO should establish facility uptime, preventive maintenance and service-level dashboards.

• EMERGENCY & BUSINESS CONTINUITY
  
  

Ensure hospital preparedness for emergencies and operational disruptions.

• Emergency preparedness.
• Disaster management.
• Business continuity planning.
• Fire and life safety preparedness.
• Mass casualty preparedness.
• Utility failure preparedness.
• IT downtime preparedness.
• Security incident response.
• Pandemic/infectious disease preparedness where applicable.
• GOVERNANCE & MANAGEMENT REVIEWS
  
  

Establish a disciplined hospital management cadence.

Daily:

• Occupancy
• Admissions/discharges
• Emergency load
• Bed availability
• OT utilisation
• Critical incidents
• Patient complaints
• Staffing issues
• Operational bottlenecks
  
  

Weekly:

• Revenue
• Occupancy
• Patient experience
• Complaints
• TAT
• Productivity
• Doctor engagement
• Department performance
• Project progress
  
  

Monthly:

• P&L
• EBITDA
• Revenue
• ARPOB
• Occupancy
• ALOS
• OT utilisation
• Diagnostics utilisation
• Patient experience
• Quality
• HR
• Procurement
• Compliance
• Strategic projects
• KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS
  
  

Financial:

The COO's scorecard will include, at minimum:

• Revenue
• EBITDA
• Budget variance
• ARPOB/ARPP
• Cost per occupied bed
• Revenue leakage
• Collection efficiency
  
  

Operations:

• Bed occupancy
• ALOS
• Bed turnaround time
• OT utilisation
• ICU utilisation
• Diagnostic utilisation
• OPD/IPD conversion
• Discharge TAT
• Emergency TAT
  
  

Patient Experience:

• NPS/CSAT
• Complaint rate
• Complaint closure TAT
• Repeat complaints
• Patient waiting time
• Service recovery performance
  
  

Quality:

• Accreditation compliance
• Audit closure
• Incident reporting
• RCA/CAPA closure
• Patient safety indicators
  
  

People:

• Employee attrition
• Vacancy rate
• Productivity
• Training compliance
• Employee engagement
  
  

Digital:

• HIS utilisation
• CRM adoption
• Digital appointment conversion
• Contact Centre SLA
• Data accuracy
• QUALIFICATION
  
  

Essential:

• Bachelor's degree in Medicine, Hospital Administration, Healthcare Management, Business Administration or related discipline.
• MBA/MHA/PG qualification in Healthcare/Hospital Management preferred.
• Strong exposure to large hospital operations.
  
  

Preferred:

• MBBS + MBA/MHA/Healthcare Management
• MBA/MHA with extensive hospital operations experience
• Additional leadership/strategy education from reputed institutions preferred.
• EXPERIENCE
  
  

Typically 18–25+ years of overall experience, including substantial leadership experience in hospital operations.

Preferred Exposure:

• Tertiary/quaternary care hospitals
• Multi-specialty hospitals
• Corporate hospital chains
• Greenfield hospital commissioning
• Hospital turnaround
• P&L ownership
• Business growth
• Patient experience
• NABH/JCI
• Digital transformation
• Large multidisciplinary teams
  
  

Experience in organisations such as Apollo, Fortis, Max, Manipal, Medanta, Narayana, Aster, KIMS or comparable healthcare institutions would be relevant, but should not be treated as a mandatory brand-name criterion. These institutions are among the major Indian hospital groups used in industry comparisons.

• CORE COMPETENCIES
  
  

The Successful Candidate Should Demonstrate:

• Strategic leadership
• Hospital operations
• P&L management
• Business development
• Patient experience
• Clinical stakeholder management
• Quality and accreditation
• Process excellence
• Financial discipline
• Change management
• Digital transformation
• Crisis management
• Vendor management
• Physician engagement
• People leadership
• Data-driven decision making
• Board-level communication
• LEADERSHIP PROFILE
  
  

Patient-centric + commercially disciplined + operationally strong + clinically collaborative + digitally enabled + people-oriented.

The Individual Should Be Comfortable Moving Between:

Boardroom → ICU/OT → OPD → Emergency → Contact Centre → Finance → HR → IT → Patient grievance → Vendor negotiations.

The COO should be an execution-oriented leader who converts strategy into measurable hospital performance, rather than functioning primarily as an administrative coordinator.

• SUCCESS PROFILE
  
  

Within 18–36 months, the COO should be able to demonstrate measurable improvement in:

Hospital utilisation + Revenue + EBITDA + Patient experience + Quality + Productivity + Employee engagement + Operational reliability.

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