Javier Arcos, MD, MHA
Fundación Jiménez Díaz
University Hospital
General Manager, Founding member of the Clinical and Organizational Innovation Unit of Quironsalud
Company Info
Fundación Jiménez Díaz
University Hospital
About
Dr. Javier Arcos began his career working as an emergency physician at Fundación Jiménez Díaz University Hospital (FJD) in Madrid, while also coordinating disaster response teams for Doctors of the World in more than 10 countries across Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Transitioning to health management at Quironsalud, he specialized in innovation and change management to optimize health care delivery and improve patient outcomes. He enhanced his skills in strategy, VBHC, digital health & AI, patient experience and financial management through various postgraduate programs. During that time, he served as deputy medical director at General de Villalba University Hospital and contributed to founding the UICO (Clinical and Organizational Innovation Unit of Quironsalud). He returned to FJD as medical director in 2020, and in 2023, he transitioned from that position to become the general manager, his current position.
Education
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Strategy, Finance and Leadership Program
Harvard Business School and Fresenius, 2024 -
Value-Based Health Care Intensive Seminar
Harvard Business School, 2020 -
Healthcare Leadership Program
Esade Business & Law School, 2017 -
Master's Degree
Healthcare Masters
CEF. Center for Financial Studies, 2016 -
Awards & Certifications
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Joint Commission International Accreditation
Joint Commission International, 2023 -
European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) 2021
EFQM Global Award (+ 750) -
IQVIA 2021, 2022, 2024
Top Value Award
Philanthropic Endeavors
- Dr. Arcos supports Doctors of the World and Fundación Recover, both international NGOs specializing in health cooperation. Additionally, he also supports numerous Corporate Social Responsibility projects at the national level through Fundación Quironsalud, as well as environmental and health projects through the +MÁS initiative (Environment and Health), which originated at the Fundación Jiménez Díaz University Hospital.
Links to Rankings during tenure
Past Rankings Appearances
Dr. Javier Arcos serves as the general manager of the Fundación Jiménez Díaz University Hospital located in Madrid, Spain.
Can you tell me what were some of the earliest influences or experiences that you had growing up that shaped your interest in medicine and leadership?
Both of my parents worked in the health care sector. My father was a well-known spine surgeon in the south of Spain, and my mother also worked in the health sector. She worked in a patient-relations department. As a child, I remember spending a lot of time visiting my father on the weekends while he was on call.
Of course, this has been a great influence on my life.
When did you decide that medicine was going to be the career that you would follow, especially emergency care?
In my family, there has always been a very strong sense of social vocation. This guided my career, including the decision to study medicine at university.
Regarding my career as an emergency physician, I believe there were two key factors. The first one was my training here as an emergency physician because we have an outstanding emergency department. That sparked a strong interest in the field.
The second was that I worked extensively in an emergency context around the world. Specializing in emergency medicine was the best preparation. These two things have been really important in my life.
During your time as an emergency physician, is there a patient story or experience that left a lasting impact on you?
When I was working in Angola, I remember working in a cholera center and a young girl came to the hospital. She was completely dehydrated because of the cholera disease, practically lifeless and only minutes away from dying.
It was extremely difficult to establish a venous line to revive her, and once we succeeded in rehydration, it only took 24 hours. It was like a miracle The girl came back to life with the proper resources and people there to attend to her. Three days later, she was able to return home in perfect health.
Without that treatment center, without the right staff, without the right resources, that child would not have survived. That is what health care management truly means: putting knowledge and resources in the service of the patient.
What motivated you to transition from clinical practice to leadership and ultimately to accept the role of general manager at FJD?
I really wanted to make an impact globally through health care management. Over time, that transition from clinician to CEO of the hospital was natural and gradual because it has always been supported by the leaders of my company, Quirónsalud, who provided me opportunities to gain experience, and pursue advanced training programs to strengthen my capabilities.
It has been a natural growth, and I'm really happy to be here now.
In your current role, what tells you that you've done a job well?
My work is closely connected to two major groups of people: the hospital staff and the patients who need and trust us. Therefore, achieving a positive experience for both patients and professionals together with appropriate health care.
Health care outcomes achieved in a sustainable way are the best indicator of strong performance. So, let's say the satisfaction of the staff and patients and achieving the best outcomes in health care.
How do you measure the satisfaction of your staff and the people that work for you?
I'm lucky because before being here as CEO, I was an emergency physician for more than 10 years. I have a very close relationship with all my doctors.
We can also add that we have a very low turnover rate, most of them want to develop their whole career here with us, and we have strong relationships with the chiefs of departments and the rest of the doctors because of my past. I'm very happy to have that knowledge to better understand the needs of our doctors now.
It's impossible to ignore the real problems they have. Of course, I have empathy because I was in the same position they are in now, so I can understand their demands perfectly.
Can you tell me what is one of the most important lessons you've learned about leadership that continues to guide your decision-making process?
Leadership is about inspiring with passion. It's about maintaining consistency over time and working as a team. These are the three pillars of leadership.
There is no single leader. It's important to understand that in every organization there is a distributed system of leadership where many people, through their interaction and influence, help spread and strengthen the corporate culture. I always try to keep these three lessons in mind: passion, consistency, and teamwork.
What personal values would you say you bring to your role that makes the greatest difference in the organization's culture?
The values that I bring to this role are deeply connected to my personal and professional journey. From my family, for example, I inherited service and social vocation. From my humanitarian work, resilience and adaptability,and from my career in hospital management, I think teamwork and consistency are the most important.
Together, these values shape my leadership style and make a real difference in fostering a culture of trust, excellence, innovation and commitment to patient care.
Is there a story that sticks out that really reminds you why you've made this transition and why you're just as effective as a leader as you were as a clinician?
The large number of patient stories related to the COVID pandemic outbreak and the response that we provided stands out as one of the best memories I have since becoming involved in health care management. In that position, being able to face such a complex emergency while supporting a team of highly qualified professionals with an exemplary attitude was a real turning point in my professional career.
What has been one of your biggest challenges since becoming the leader of FJD and how did you and your team overcome it?
One of the greatest challenges as CEO has been related to managing cultural change, particularly with the introduction of many digital health, artificial intelligence tools, etc., to improve the quality of care in our daily practice.
The health care sector has taken somewhat longer than others to embrace these tools. Our hospital, Fundación Jiménez Díaz, is an international benchmark in the use of digital health and AI tools.
We can say that we are successfully overcoming this challenge.
Can you share a recent achievement at FJD that reflects your team's dedication to value-based care and measurable outcomes?
Our hospital shows a lower-than-expected mortality rate compared with other high complexity hospitals at the national level, as a concrete example through our value-based health care programs and methodology. We have managed to extend the survival of patients in hematology and oncology, for example, by using PROMs and real-time alert systems through the patient portal, which allows us to anticipate and to respond earlier to patients' needs.
More broadly, our value-based health care strategy is contributing to improving both health outcomes and patient experience, positioning us as the highest rated high complexity hospital in Madrid.
Can you walk me through a patient experience that exemplifies that sort of infrastructure and sort of what that means to an individual patient?
Imagine that you are a patient coming to our hospital to receive a hip replacement. We know that hip replacement has a high risk of infection because of the type of surgery. Once the patient has been operated on, they're included in a program that uses artificial intelligence to detect, in advance, a possible infection.
Through that system, we have been able to reduce the average rate of infection related to health care assistance by two points, and by close to 30 percent when compared with the rest of the hospitals in the European region.
How do you approach leadership and strategy to keep your organization agile and resilient in a rapidly changing health care environment?
Everybody knows that we live in constantly changing environment. Leadership and strategy are about combining vision with execution toward the future. We rely on a value-based health care strategy as a framework. We ensure that innovation, digital tools, and artificial intelligence are not just trends, but practical solutions to improve outcomes, patient experience, and staff experience.
By embedding this kind of innovation into everyday practice, we keep the organization agile and resilient in a constantly changing environment. We are fostering the capability to adapt to the future with digital tools and cultural change.
How are digital health tools in AI transforming care delivery, both for patients and for clinicians?
Digital tools and AI are absolutely transforming care delivery in our hospital by making it more personalized, proactive, and safe. Our digital platforms, such as the patient portal, enable continuous communication, real-time alerts, and prompts that allow us to anticipate patients' needs.
And for clinicians, AI is providing insights, digital workflows, and optimized processes. We are able to reduce administrative burdens, provide actionable data to support clinical judgment, and free up time so they can focus more on direct patient interaction. This transformation positions us as an international benchmark for the future of health care.
To give you an example of how it's impacting daily life. The use of artificial intelligence as an ambient scribe has completely changed the doctor-patient interaction, giving our physicians more time for listening, empathy and meaningful engagement with the patient. They don't have to be typing all the time.
This program launched in 2024 and is now fully operational across all hospital specialties. It's demonstrating how AI can reduce administrative burden for our doctors, while giving them more time to treat patients face-to-face and to have more empathy in the clinical act.
Can you share a specific example where innovation recently made a tangible difference in patient care or operational efficiency?
One of the clearest examples of how this kind of innovation is changing the way we deal with medical processes is related to the concept of automation and standardization. In the past, every clinical pathway depended on an individual doctor, and because of that, we had clinical variation in our sector.
Everybody tries to do their best, but they were not working in the same way. And because of that, we were generating many clinical acts without added value. Now, through digital tools, we are able to standardize and automate clinical pathways, so all doctors are following exactly the same rules.
This has allowed us to streamline each clinical pathway, reducing unnecessary steps by 25 to 30 percent, which means faster, safer, and more efficient care for our patients.
What is the biggest opportunity for health care systems to make a leap forward in the next five or 10 years?
In the next five or 10 years, I believe the biggest opportunity lies in combining the power of digital health and artificial intelligence with the real principles of value. Health care AI and digital tools are already allowing us to prevent, to predict and to personalize and reduce workload.
With value-based health care, we can ensure that this innovation will be aligned with better outcomes, patient experience and the sustainable use of the resources. That combination of digital tools, AI, and value-based health care is the key to the future.
Can you contextualize the history of "La Concha" and what it means to be a conchito?
This tradition began many decades ago and is very closely related to the values of the people who have worked in the hospitals both in the past and today.
It originates from the hospital's former name, "La Concha", in honor of the founder's wife, Doña Concha, who after the passing of Dr. Carlos Jiménez Díaz, dedicated part of her life to promoting the training of young physicians and preserving her husband's legacy. It has become a hallmark of identity, and it's a very special source of belonging for all of us.
We would like "La Concha" to be formally included in the Spanish Royal Academy dictionary. It's more than just a word for us. It reflects our history, our tradition and a unique sense of belonging within our hospital community. Having it formally recognized will honor that legacy and give visibility to a cultural and scientific legacy.
That legacy has helped shape a generation of physicians and continues to inspire new ones.
How would you describe your leadership style?
I try to focus on transmitting passion, because it's what motivates me to come to the hospital every single day and to try to develop even better medicine than we are doing right now. And on communication, I try to make everyone understand why we are making decisions, implementing changes, or trying to do things in a different way.
I was a doctor in the past. I want to continue taking care of patients. But I know we can do it in a different way. That passion, plus the time invested in communication, are the skills that really define my leadership.
What is your visibility like in the organization?
Being honest, I am really accessible as a CEO. I've been working here for more than 10 years as a physician, so now the vast majority of doctors that are managing the hospital belong to my generation.
We are a highly trusted team. We have been working together for more than 20 years, and because of that, I'm very open to proposals. Otherwise, it would be impossible to run a big hospital like this one. It's impossible to remain in your office closed all day just looking at the numbers.
For us, it is really important to spend time with doctors, talking to them, listening to them, and trying to understand their real needs.
Do you think that your experience as a clinician, can inform your ability to not let bureaucracy get in the way of communication?
I think that in the healthcare sector we had been making some mistakes. In the past, it was as if the doctor was in charge of health, while the managerial team was in charge of the financial part of the business.
This is absolutely wrong. We must all have the same focus. Being a doctor and now being in the CEO position helps me to remember our purpose. We are here to take care of patients, but we must do it in a sustainable way. This combination of a financial view as a CEO with the clinical view as a doctor, shapes my leadership, and it is a role I feel comfortable in.
Can you tell me what sparked your interest to go into humanitarian work internationally?
When I was a teenager, I learned from my parents what a social vocation means. At the same time, my parents loved to travel, so I grew up knowing what was happening around the world, not just focused on my small city, but also knowing what was happening outside.
When I discovered that I wanted to be a doctor, it was very important for me to explore not just being a doctor in a regular hospital here in Spain, but also understand the needs of patients in many different contexts. So, as soon as I arrived in Madrid, I enrolled in different NGOs.
For more than 10 years, I worked in different emergency settings like outbreaks, earthquakes, and many natural disasters. It may seem like there are different worlds, but they're not so different.
Javier Arcos is a member of the Newsweek CEO Circle, an invite-only executive community of subscribers.
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