A national search for Kevin Slavin's successor is currently underway.
Paterson, New Jersey-based St. Joseph's Health announced yesterday that the health system's president and CEO is retiring.
Kevin Slavin, who has a healthcare career spanning over forty years, will end his eight-year tenure leading the nonprofit Catholic health system at the end of 2023.
A national search for Slavin's successor is currently underway and being conducted by a search committee convened by the system's board of trustees. A leadership transition process will take place over the next twelve months. In the meantime, Slavin will continue to lead St. Joseph's Health, working closely with the organization's board and leadership team.
"It has been my great honor and privilege to lead St. Joseph's," Slavin said in a press release shared with HealthLeaders. "I am proud of the organization we are today and the impact we've had on so many lives. St. Joseph's is a remarkable family of extraordinary people, bolstered by our sponsors, the Sisters of Charity of Saint Elizabeth. I am in awe of their compassion, their commitment to excellence, and their resilience, and I am confident that St. Joseph's will continue to grow and flourish in the years ahead."
Since becoming the leader of St. Joseph's in 2015, St. Joseph's University Medical Center became the first hospital in the country to launch an Alternative to Opioids Program (ALTO) and was the inspiration for the U.S. ALTO in Emergency Departments Act, signed into legislation in October 2018.
He spearheaded a clinical and strategic partnership with Hackensack Meridian Health, which began in 2020 to expand home care, rehabilitation, and cancer care in northwestern New Jersey.
He also had the difficult task of leading the health system through the COVID-19 pandemic. He also served as chairperson of the board for the New Jersey Hospital Association during the height of the pandemic in 2020, where he played a critical role in hospital response to the pandemic in the Garden State and across the northeast.
In 2022, the health system opened a new 140,000-square-foot ambulatory facility in Totowa, New Jersey under Slavin's leadership.
During his healthcare career in New Jersey, Slavin has had a lasting impact in addressing social determinants of health through award-winning initiatives in Passaic County, including addressing food insecurity and violence in the community, and launching the state's first supporting housing facility adjacent to the campus of St. Joseph's Health.
Praise for Kevin Slavin
"Kevin has played an instrumental role in our continued success, expanding care throughout the region, leading us through the pandemic and sustaining our 155-year mission to the community. We are privileged to have worked with Kevin and are enormously grateful to him for his many contributions … Kevin is giving us plenty of time to conduct a comprehensive search and prepare the organization for his departure. The Board extends immense gratitude to him for his exemplary leadership." — Wilfredo Fernandez, Chairperson, St. Joseph's Health Board of Trustees.
"Kevin has been a strong leader guided by the Charism of Charity having a special concern for those who were poor and vulnerable in the communities St. Joseph’s Health serves. He has served as a visionary leader, with integrity and compassion, in a time of extraordinary change in healthcare," —Sr. Maureen Shaughnessy, SC, General Superior, Sisters of Charity of Saint Elizabeth, the sponsor of St. Joseph's Health.
"Kevin helped steer us through one of the most important periods for health care in our state’s history, and we will forever be grateful for his leadership." —Cathy Bennett, President and CEO of the New Jersey Hospital Association.
Melanie Blackman is a contributing editor for strategy, marketing, and human resources at HealthLeaders, an HCPro brand.
Photo credit: St. Joseph's University Medical Center located in Paterson, New Jersey. Photo courtesy of St. Joseph's Health.