How do you find candidates who aren't even looking?

Most of the directors we place aren't looking. We know who they are because we've been talking to them for years. When your seat opens, we don't post it on a job board and hope — we pick up the phone and call the three or four people who fit, and see who's ready to move.

What credentials should I expect from the candidates you send?

It depends on the seat. A Director of Surgical Services typically holds a BSN with CNOR behind their name. OR Managers and PACU leaders carry CNOR or CPAN. Surgical Techs hold CST. We also look at what they've actually done — robotic programs they've stood up, turnover minutes they've cut, satisfaction numbers they've moved. The credential gets them in the room. The track record is what we ask about.

Why not just use our internal HR team or a generalist agency?

Your internal team recruits for surgical leadership once every few years and starts from scratch each time. A generalist recruiter is juggling IT, finance, and nursing roles in the same week — they can't tell you the difference between a CNOR and a CST. We run six to twelve surgical searches at any given time. That's all we do, so we know the market, the going rates, and who's open to a move.

How fast can you actually get someone in front of us?

The Director of Surgery market is one of the most competitive in healthcare right now — strong leaders are rarely sitting idle, and the ones who are open to a move get picked up fast. We don't promise a specific timeline because every search is different, but we don't start from zero. We already know who fits your OR volume, trauma level, and case mix, so Day 1 is spent reaching out, not building a list. From there, how quickly someone lands in front of you depends on the market, the candidate's situation, and how fast your team can move on interviews.

Do candidates pay anything to work with you?

No. The hiring hospital or health system covers the fee. Candidates submit a resume and book a confidential call at no cost. We represent the candidate to the employer — they never pay us.

What's the difference between permanent and interim placement?

Permanent placement is a direct-hire search for a long-term leadership role — your next Director of Surgical Services. Interim is a short-term fix: an experienced leader who steps in for a leave, a gap, or while you run a permanent search. We handle both, for hospital ORs and ambulatory surgery centers.

Who leads Surgical Nurse Recruiter?

Surgical Nurse Recruiter is led by Chris Monroe, Founder & CEO. The firm is a division of The Clinical Recruiter, based in Franklin, Tennessee, serving hospitals, health systems, and ambulatory surgery centers across the United States.

Robotic Surgery

Chris Monroe 2026-03-20

Robotic Surgery Programs: The Capital ROI Most Hospitals Mismanage

Founder & CEO, The Clinical Recruiter

A robotic surgical system is not a billing metric. It is a capital utilization metric. Robotics measures whether the multi-million-dollar platform you purchased is actually generating cases at the volume that justifies the investment. When utilization lags, you lose money — not because the technology was wrong, but because the workflow around it was incomplete.

The partnership between the OR and sterile processing is where this gets fixed. Robotic instruments require specialized reprocessing — delicate arms, multi-use wrist instruments, and specialized scopes that demand strict CSSD workflows. When reprocessing breaks down, trays are delayed, cases start late, and the robot sits idle. The right leader builds a dedicated robotic CSSD pathway that prevents tray delays.

Dedicated robotic teams are the hidden utilization lever. Staffing robotics suites with cross-trained scrub techs and circulating nurses who know docking, undocking, and instrument troubleshooting streamlines the case and protects the schedule. A team that fumbles through a robotic setup costs 20 minutes per case. A dedicated team protects that time.

I have seen facilities increase robotic case volume by 30 to 40 percent simply by tightening the OR-CSSD partnership and building dedicated teams. For a 300-bed hospital running multiple systems, that can translate to millions in additional contribution margin annually. Not from buying more robots — from running the ones you already have at real capacity.

When we speak with Director candidates, we ask about their robotic program. Do they track console hours? Do they have a dedicated robotic steering committee? Can they explain the difference between XI, DV5, and SP configurations and why case mix determines which platform to use? If they can speak to those things fluently, we know we have a leader who understands the capital side — not just the clinical side.

Chris Monroe

Founder & CEO, The Clinical Recruiter

Former hospital CEO with 23 years of healthcare leadership experience, from food service worker to the executive suite. Chris founded The Clinical Recruiter to connect hospitals with surgical and perioperative leaders who understand the financial weight of every OR turn-time.

Surgical Site Infection Prevention: Why Discipline Beats Checklists Every Time Sterile Processing Leadership: The Department Nobody Talks About Until It Fails

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