Strategic executive - Passionate and entrepreneurial problem solver - Proficient in optimizing complex operations - Engaging communicator who builds trust and promotes collaboration to overcome barriers to success.
University of Florida, MBA
Texas A&M University, BS Industrial Engineering
BACKGROUND
Cara Cook is a healthcare executive with a background in industrial engineering. She has extensive hospital leadership experience, comprising nearly 20 years of internal and external advisory work with for-profit, not-for-profit, and large academic medical centers, hospitals, clinics, and health systems – many in the Southeast United States.
INDUSTRY EXPERIENCE
With nearly 20 years of performance improvement and hospital administration experience, Cara provides healthcare operations consulting services that engage local leaders and meaningfully impact outcomes, streamline operations, and ensure finances are sustainable to support long term patient care services in our communities. She has extensive experience in strategic planning, labor management, ER and OR throughput, patient flow, clinical process, change management, and financial improvement work.
ENGAGEMENT EXPERIENCE
Collaborated with various corporate, division, and hospital executives on efforts that align with strategic plans and ultimately position hospitals for maximum growth and effective cost reduction at large for-profit system.
Implemented labor management infrastructure, leveraging both support through education and accountability through reporting and action planning in multiple non-profit systems, one of which saved over $40M annually.
Reduced Average Inpatient Length of Stay by more than 5%, saving millions of dollars and creating desperately needed bed capacity in a 16-hospital for-profit system in Florida.
Partnered with clinical staff to understand needs and designed customized productivity tool solution to increase nursing unit utilization by 10% at large non-profit academic medical center.
Created road map and engaged key stakeholders in enterprise-wide strategic goal visualization tool that highlights variation for timely intervention to support goals of large academic medical center.
Set strategic and operational direction of Emergency Services initiatives for 16 hospital for-profit system, resulting in 7% ER visit growth, 13% reduction in wait times, and 30% reduction in patients who left prior to being seen.
Streamlined startup/3rd party application integration process to pilot cutting edge solutions, enabling large academic medical system to effectively capitalize on Silicon Valley innovations.
REPRESENTATIVE CLIENTS
Orlando Health, Duke Health, Stanford Hospitals and Clinics, Prisma Health, Bronson Healthcare, Maine Medical Center, AdventHealth, Harris Health, HealthONE Hospitals, Envision Healthcare, Abbott Laboratories