​Doctor of Executive Leadership (DEL) Program Outcome #3
Assemble, align, and reconfigure tangible and intangible assets to sustain organizations’, communities’, or institutions’ viability for the future.
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The change in ownership allowed Hampstead Hospital to become part of a larger health system. This would allow for a sustainable future of more healthcare-focused care. As executive leaders, it was our responsibility to ensure that all staff and our external stakeholders were informed of this change and its impact on patient care in the hospital.
Executive Summary
Hampstead Hospital is a pediatric and adolescent psychiatric hospital located in Hampstead, NH. Opened in 1974, Hampstead Hospital was a private hospital that was purchased by the State of New Hampshire in 2022. After purchasing the hospital, the State hired a third-party contractor to run the clinical operations. The contract for that third-party was two years, in which the State of New Hampshire did not renew that contract. It was determined in May 2024 that the State of New Hampshire would not hire a third-party and would make all staff in the hospital state employees. Over the course of 8 weeks, the transition was made to make all staff state employees. In November of 2024, the State decided that it was unable to afford to run the operations of the hospital and went through a bidding process, Dartmouth Health won the bidding process and on December 16, 2024, it was approved through the State of New Hampshire’s Governor and Council process. It was determined that on February 2, 2025, Dartmouth Health would assume all operations of Hampstead Hospital for a minimum of seven years.
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Throughout this process as the COO of the hospital, there were many operational impacts both for the staff and the patients. Having knowledge of these negotiations prior to both the public and staff knowing there was a lot of preparation being done on how to operationalize the change and more importantly how to communicate the change to the staff. Pinnington (2011) shares that executive leadership includes the ability to communicate openly. However, the challenges became clear that there was a limit to the information that could be shared during this timeframe. Ethically, this became challenging for me as there were significant changes that would impact the employees in which I was unable to help them prepare for. Johnson (2021) identified that leaders have an unusual degree of power in which to shape culture and lead people, which becomes a responsibility of leaders to understand the ethical impact they have on those whom they lead.
Once able to communicate the changes in ownership, it became increasingly challenging to frame the conversation with staff that this change was a good one for both the patients and the hospital as a whole. Stewart (2008) stated that leaders the people want to be led by are those who can adapt to different situations based on specific events. This situation was difficult for staff, however throughout the process as a leader I tried to ensure the staff had all of the information that was able to be shared in a timely manner. In discussions with both the State leadership as well as Dartmouth Health leadership it was important to discuss how communication of this process was important to be distributed to the staff in a timely manner. Once distributed it was then on me as a leader to be able to offer the opportunity to listen and hear the concerns and frustrations about yet another change to the operations of the hospital.
The success of communicating this change in ownership was in part due to the ability to frame the discussion and how the impact of this change although difficult would be best for the organization in the long-term. O’Reilly et al. (2010) argue that executive leaders create organizational strategies, and it is with communication with middle managers that determine the success of that strategy. That was true in this situation, it was getting the message out to the middle managers and getting them onboard with the changes, to which they were able to communicate that message to their staff.
In the end, the outcome is still to be determined, however since February 2, 2025 to the time of this writing, the number of incidents of violence has decreased, the number of staff hired has significantly increased, census is up to a level it has not been in over two years, and staff seemed to be feeling supported and happy. It is difficult to measure the overall success of this transition as of now, however, the importance of setting a culture and environment that has allowed the growth and success that the hospital is currently having is a step in the right direction.
Doctor of Executive Leadership (DEL) Program Outcome #1
​Sense and shape opportunities for, and threats to, future growth and development through embedding scanning, creative, and learning processes into organizations, communities, or institutions.
The change in ownership provided a complex environment for the leaders of the organization. As the Chief Operating Officer, it was my responsibility to ensure the culture and environment were stable to allow staff to speak up and voice concerns. Developing "Town Halls", leadership forums, and consistent communication to allow for information to be distributed to all staff in a timely and transparent way.