Pete Leer, North Arkansas Regional Medical Center's senior VP/COO, has resigned. Leer has been offered an opportunity with Cox Health as their vice-president of clinical services, with responsibilities for all surgical services, and will leave NARMC mid-April. Leer's last scheduled work day will mark the end of his third year at the hospital.
Joint Commission Resources has announced the appointments of healthcare executives John Babiarz and J. Thornton Kirby as members of its Board of Directors. JCR is a not-for-profit affiliate of The Joint Commission. Babiarz is group president of ARAMARK Healthcare Management Services. Kirby is president/CEO of the South Carolina Hospital Association.
John C. Johnson has been named to a new regional position where he will assume responsibilities for more Catholic Health East hospitals. Effective May 1, Johnson will be executive vice president, Ministry Operations for CHE. He will be responsible for mergers and acquisitions for the CHE system. Johnson has served as president and CEO of Holy Cross Hospital since 1998 and of Mercy Hospital since 2008. Holy Cross Hospital Executive Vice President/COO Patrick Taylor, MD, has been promoted to president/CEO of Holy Cross Hospital. Mercy Hospital COO Manuel P. Anton III, MD, has been promoted to president/CEO of Mercy. Both promotions are effective May 1.
Mac Holley, Dennis Blackburn, Joseph Thompson, and Neal Von Stein are newly elected officers of the Board of Trustees of Baptist Health Foundation. Chairman Holley is president/CEO at Florida Capital Bank of Northeast Florida. Vice Chairman Blackburn is the managing member of Blackburn & Company. Joe Thompson is the managing principal at Gresham, Smith and Partners. Von Stein has been a member of the Board since 2005. He is managing partner at LBA Certified Accountants. The Baptist Health Foundation announced four new trustees to the Board: Stacy Berg, Gerald Kunkle, Robin Sorensen, and Mary Pietan.
Roger Oxendale has been named CEO of Nemours Children's Hospital and will be joining the organization in April. This is a new leadership position for the integrated pediatric facility, under construction at the Lake Nona Medical Campus near Orlando, FL. He will also serve as a Nemours Senior Vice President. Before joining Nemours, Oxendale was CEO of Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC and president of the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh Foundation.
Former U.S. Congressman Kweisi Mfume will take the helm of the nation's oldest and largest medical association representing the more than 30,000 physicians of African descent and their patients, effective March 29. Mfume spent nine years leading the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, where he established the organization's first National Office of Health Advocacy to educate and advocate on behalf of access and affordability in healthcare.