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Hospital chief executives are tapping physicians for upper management roles beyond the traditional chief medical officer and other primarily clinical positions. But often, these highly educated, entrepreneurial and strong-willed individuals need help acquiring the business and people skills to successfully make the transition.

Personality dashes among senior managers can weaken leadership and wreak havoc on the entire hospital. What traits should raise red flags when hiring or promoting executives and how can conflicts be averted? The second part of our cover package looks at hospitals that nurture talent within their own ranks by creating leadership training programs.

Many CEOs have a blind spot when pushing for culture change in their organizations; they fail to grasp that they may well be the biggest obstacle to change. Self-reflection is not among the traits that drive executives to the top spot, but once there, they need to be aware of how their management style, for better or worse, sets the tone for the organization as a whole.

CEOs change jobs all the time, but only a handful make the jump from not-for-profit to for-profit hospital or vice versa. Some thrive in the new setting. Others crash. Personality makes the difference.

More than half of all changes in organizations fail. But there is hope, suggests Rick Maurer, author of ¿Beyond the Wall of Resistance.¿ He says that it isn't resistance itself--since resistance is nothing more than people's need to protect themselves from harm--but how you handle it that creates the problem. Here in this exclusive excerpt, he argues that you shouldn't try to overcome resistance, but embrace it.

One former hospital executive says his friends tell him he looks years younger. Another says he wanted to make more money, and now he can. And yet another says she wanted to start her own company before she was too old to enjoy it. These and other ex-CEOs left powerful positions, not to mention fancy corner offices, for an uncertain future. As it turns out, they're happier than ever. What do they know that you don't?

CEOs of rural hospitals know that integrating their services is essential to survival. What's not clear is whether the steps many are now taking--hiring primary care doctors and partnering with other hospitals--will secure their future. Results from an H&HN survey on rural integration.

TQM/CQI. Patient-centered care. Critical paths. Reengineering. Downsizing, rightsizing, networking, merging. It is any wonder health care executives are feeling shell-shocked? Yet the reality is that there's no avoiding change, only managing it. And those executives shaping the flow of change are keeping their organizations in the game. Some stories from the front.

National health care reform legislation will affect hospitals in ways as dissimilar as hospitals themselves. How prepared are they? Hospitals & Health Networks, in conjunction with Premier Hospitals Alliance, Westchester, IL, surveyed 402 CEOs and chief operating officers to gauge their responses to anticipated changes and garner their opinions on how reform will affect their hospitals.