Hospice Executive Director

Hospice Executive Director

Hospice | Chicago, IL

Full Spectrum Search Group is a full-service healthcare recruiting agency specializing in post-acute leadership and healthcare administration, serving skilled nursing, senior living, home health, hospice, home care, and the providers and technologies that support the post-acute space.

We are representing a growth-focused hospice provider seeking a Hospice Executive Director to lead its Chicago, IL branch.

This is a build-and-lead hospice opportunity for an experienced administrator who knows the Chicago referral landscape and can establish a newer branch as a trusted local provider. You will own census growth, lead a fully staffed team, and bring sound clinical and operational judgment to an early-stage operation.

Three Uniques

- Lead a Chicago hospice branch, with the opportunity to shape its market presence and growth trajectory from an early stage.

- Take on a high-priority leadership search for an organization expanding through multiple new branches and sustained organizational growth.

- Step into a fully staffed local team, including a Director of Patient Care Services, Director of Marketing, and Volunteer Coordinator

Position Summary

The Hospice Executive Director will lead all local branch operations for a Chicago hospice currently building census and referral-market visibility. This leader will be accountable for branch performance, team leadership, regulatory readiness, referral development, and a high-quality patient and family experience.

The right candidate has already led hospice operations, understands how to grow census responsibly in a competitive market, and brings established credibility with Chicago-area referral sources.

Key Responsibilities

- Lead day-to-day hospice branch operations, aligning clinical, operational, marketing, volunteer, and administrative functions around census growth and quality care delivery.

- Build and execute a local growth plan focused on meaningful referral relationships with hospitals, physicians, skilled nursing facilities, senior living communities, home health partners, and other appropriate referral sources.

- Partner closely with the Director of Marketing to expand community visibility, referral activity, admissions opportunities, and sustainable census growth.

- Lead and coach the local leadership team

- Maintain readiness for hospice regulatory requirements, quality expectations, documentation standards, and survey activity.

- Monitor branch performance, admissions activity, staffing needs, care delivery, and operational barriers that could affect growth or patient service.

- Build a culture of accountability, responsiveness, interdisciplinary collaboration, and strong patient and family service.

- Represent the hospice professionally in the Chicago market and establish the branch as a credible, reliable community partner.

Qualifications

- Hospice administrator, executive director, or comparable senior hospice operations leadership experience.

- Active RN license strongly preferred.

- Demonstrated success leading hospice census growth, particularly within a small branch, start-up, de novo, or early-stage operation.

- Established knowledge of the Chicago hospice market and local referral-source dynamics.

- Existing relationships with Chicago-area referral partners strongly preferred.

- Experience leading interdisciplinary hospice teams and partnering effectively with clinical, business development, and volunteer leadership.

- Working knowledge of hospice operations, regulatory expectations, survey readiness, and quality oversight.

- Ability to balance strategic market development with hands-on operational leadership during a branch's growth phase.

Full Spectrum Search Group builds leadership and management teams for the country's most prominent post-acute operators. As part of the Sanford Rose Associates International network, the 9th largest executive search firm in the US, our clients get boutique-level attention backed by national resources. We're ranked among the Top 10 U.S. & Americas search firms, have been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Business Week, and CNN, and have completed over 112,500 searches.

Full Spectrum is an equal opportunity search firm. We recruit candidates without regard to race, color, religion, sex, pregnancy, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, medical condition, marital status, veteran status, or any other protected characteristic under local, state or federal law.

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