Zachary Hartsell is APP Workforce Practice Leader in the APP Workforce Practice at SullivanCotter. He has over 20 years of experience as a certified physician assistant (PA-C), clinical leader, administrator and educator. With advanced practice providers (APPs) as the fastest-growing segment of the health care workforce, Zachary’s deep understanding of the evolving health care environment enables him to help organizations implement care delivery models that advance team-based care, broaden access, deliver quality to patients and manage costs.

Zachary’s experience includes:

• Assessing clinical operations and helping organizations establish and sustain team-based care delivery models that align with their mission and strategic goals.
• Maximizing APP utilization and productivity to ensure care teams operate efficiently and effectively, as well as result in patient and provider satisfaction.
• Identifying gaps and developing training to facilitate integration, transition of work and optimal use of all team members’ skills.
• Designing APP total compensation programs to reinforce desired outcomes and align with team-based care approaches.
• Providing insight and recommendations on APP recruitment and retention strategies, leadership practices, workforce planning, onboarding, compensation and competency assessments.
• Leading the development of surveys, tools and other data resources focused on APP utilization and optimization.

As a current practicing hospitalist PA, Zachary also teaches at the Wake Forest Schools of Medicine and Business. Previously, he served as administrative director of anesthesiology and pain at Wake Forest Baptist Health and was the first director of physician assistants. At Mayo Clinic in Arizona, he led the APP hospitalist team and developed the nation’s first postgraduate PA hospitalist fellowship program.

He speaks nationally on the optimization of APPs and is certified by the National Commission of Certification of Physician Assistants. He also sits on the Journal of the American Academy of Physician Assistants’ editorial board.

Zachary holds a Bachelor of Science from Touro College in New York, New York, and a Master of Physician Assistant Studies from the University of Nebraska Medical Center at Omaha. He has received a Master and Doctor of Health Administration from A.T. Still University of Health Sciences in Kirksville, Missouri.