Choosing A Speaker For A Post-Acute Leadership Conference.
Rehabilitation and long-term acute care hospitals run on long patient stays, specialized teams and tight staffing. Here is how to choose a speaker who fits that world.
Post-acute leaders manage patients for weeks, not hours, and lead teams who see the same families every day. A speaker built for a general acute-care audience can miss what makes that work hard, and what makes it meaningful.
Know who is in the room
- Hospital CEOs and CNOs. Leaders balancing census, staffing and outcomes across one or many facilities.
- Therapy and nursing directors. They lead clinicians whose work depends on steady relationships with patients.
- Department managers. Often promoted from the bedside, and learning to lead peers.
- Corporate support teams. HR, recruiting and operations leaders who support every location.
What post-acute leaders need from a keynote
They need ideas that help them keep good clinicians in hard-to-fill roles, lead managers who were promoted for clinical skill, and turn long stays into experiences patients and families remember for the right reasons.
Generic motivation without anything leaders can use on Monday tends to fade before the conference reception.
In a long stay, the patient remembers how every person made them feel, not just the outcome.
How to choose the speaker
Name the leadership problem
Retention, manager development or patient experience. Pick the one that matters most this year.
Ask about healthcare operating experience
A speaker who has run healthcare teams understands staffing math and turnover costs.
Expect a planning call
The speaker should learn your facilities, your leaders and your goals before writing a word.
Pair keynote with a workshop
A breakout for directors and managers turns ideas into commitments.
Check references
Call a hospital or health system that has booked the speaker.
Book early
System leadership conferences often lock their keynote six to twelve months out.
Questions planners ask
What topics fit a post-acute leadership conference?
Should the keynote include a workshop?
Does the speaker need healthcare experience?
How far ahead should we book?
Chris Sund has spent the past decade leading healthcare staffing companies and delivers The Power of Small Moments and You Are Capable of More: Leadership for hospitals and health systems. See his work as a hospital keynote speaker and healthcare leadership speaker.
Chris Sund
President and COO of Uniti Med, GQR Healthcare and Nebula, and bestselling author of You Are Capable of More. He has spent the past decade in healthcare staffing, helped grow Uniti Med 10x in revenue, was named to SIA’s Healthcare Staffing 100 and serves as Vice President of the NATHO Board of Directors. Based in Nebraska. Thinkers360 ranks him a Top 10 Thought Leader in Healthcare and a Top 100 Thought Leader in Leadership.
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