Monday marked the start of a new era for the Comanche County Memorial Hospital and the Southwestern Medical Center. The two now go by one name: the Memorial Health System of Southwest Oklahoma. The two hospitals unveiled the merger Monday with a ceremony.
Advocate Health CEO Gene Woods' compensation surged to $25.8 million in 2024, a 49 percent jump from the $17.3 million he earned the previous year, according to a recent tax filing. Woods' total pay leading the Atrium Health parent company has more than quadrupled since 2017, his first full year as CEO of Atrium Health — before their merger — when he earned $5.4 million.
Butler Health System, an affiliate of Independence Health System, hopes to obtain the consent of bondholders and a lender by Dec. 12 to proceed with the merger between Independence and West Virginia University Medicine. On Monday, days after IHS and WVU Medicine announced the merger, Butler Health System officials told creditors in a virtual meeting that Dec. 12 is the deadline to execute a letter of intent negotiated between the two health systems. Tom Albanesi, Independence Health System chief financial officer, said consent from a majority of Series 2015 bondholders and Truist Bank is needed to sign the letter of interest. The process will take about two weeks to complete.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced on Friday that Ephraim McDowell Health and Ephraim McDowell Regional Medical Center, headquartered in Danville, have agreed to pay $335,000 and provide other relief to settle a sex discrimination and retaliation lawsuit. According to a release, Ephraim McDowell "rejected a female employee's bid for promotion to an administrator position when the system's CEO told her men work better with men and it was best to have a male in the position" in October 2021.
The Billings Clinic-Logan Health Board of Directors on Monday announced that physician Clint Seger has been named as the organization’s CEO beginning on Jan. 1, 2026. Seger will transition from his current role as co-CEO, a title he shares with Kevin Abel, who he teamed up with to help guide the health system through its early integration phase. Abel will return to his former role as the president of Logan Health Kalispell and Whitefish.
After announcing earlier this month that it might close at the start of 2026 due to financial concerns, East Adams Rural Healthcare (EARH) in Ritzville says it now plans to stay open with a change in designation and scaled down services. At a community meeting held last Thursday (Nov. 20) in Ritzville, the hospital announced its intent to re-classify from a critical access facility to a rural emergency hospital - a move which the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services say could net EARH an extra $3.4 million in federal funding. To make the change, the hospital would be required to discontinue offering inpatient care and "swing" beds - both of which are designed to retain patients at the facility following acute treatments and rehabilitation. Swing beds are those used to provide various types of care based on patient needs as their condition changes.