Craig Albanese, MD, will assume the role of CEO at the end of March, succeeding A. Eugene Washington.
Duke University Health System (DUHS) announced its next CEO, Thursday.
The system's current COO, Craig Albanese, MD, who joined the system in January 2022, will succeed A. Eugene Washington, MD as CEO of DUHS at the end of March. Over his career, Albanese has served in numerous healthcare leadership roles and is an academic pediatric surgeon.
Washington announced his intent to step down as president and CEO of DUHS and chancellor for health affairs at Duke University last fall. He will continue his work of guiding and overseeing Duke Health's academic mission and will work closely with Albanese until June 30.
According to a press release, Albanese has been intensely involved in addressing the health system's financial challenges, ensuring sustained levels of patient care, quality, and safety, and has championed the organization's culture as COO.
"Dr. Albanese has demonstrated vigorous and responsive leadership that has enabled Duke’s clinical enterprise to recover and renew in the wake of the devastating COVID-19 pandemic, working diligently to improve the well-being of our people, and seeking to accelerate [the] expansion of our health system through organic growth and strategic partnerships," Washington and Duke University president, Vincent E. Price, said in a joint statement. "His continued leadership will be vital in guiding the next phase of the health system's work."
In his new role as CEO, the academic pediatric surgeon will oversee the system's goals and strategic priorities. He will also focus on Duke's Clinical enterprise by overseeing all of the network's clinical enterprise leaders.
Prior to joining DUHS, Albanese serves as group SVP and chief medical officer of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, a $9.2 billion academic health system.
"A passionate advocate for our providers and frontline team members, Dr. Albanese is a leader of high integrity and personal commitment who puts people first and who has garnered trust and credibility with Duke's faculty, leadership, and staff alike. Considering his personal qualities and performance to date, we are confident that Dr. Albanese is the right person to lead our health system at this time," Washington and Price said in a joint statement.
Carol Lovin, MHSA, MA, chief of staff and chief integration officer for Advocate Health, speaks about the power of teamwork and the integration that's ahead for the system this year.
Editor's note: This conversation is a transcript from an episode of the HealthLeaders Podcast. Audio of the full interview can be found here and below.
At the end of December 2022, Advocate Aurora Health and Atrium Health completed their merger to create Advocate Health, a nonprofit health system serving patients across Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Wisconsin. The combined system, headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, has 67 hospitals and more than a thousand sites of care and is the fifth largest nonprofit health system in the country.
Carol Lovin, MHSA, MN, executive vice president, chief of staff, and chief integration officer for Advocate Health, recently connected with HealthLeaders to talk about the integration that will be done in 2023 to bring the health system together, while the legacy providers continue to deliver care under their consumer-facing brands.
During the interview, she also shared her career journey from nurse to executive leader, talked about how the power of teamwork and tribulations makes great leaders, and offered advice for aspiring healthcare professionals.
This transcript has been edited for clarity and brevity.
HealthLeaders: Can you share a bit about your personal background as well as your professional background?
Carol Lovin: In many cases, people pursue careers in something they're familiar with. And when I went to college, most women pursued either teaching or nursing, and only in the past few decades really would you see the potential that you could really have by dreaming big if you wanted to be a working woman.
For me, I always wanted to be a nurse, because I had an aunt at the time who was a missionary nurse in Haiti, and healthcare was just in my blood. Being from rural South Dakota, I moved away for college, and upon becoming a nurse, my dream job was to work at the time at an open-heart surgery unit. So when I graduated, I went to Denver as a med-surg nurse, and then within a year I was working in all the critical care units, including cardiac surgery. That was a lot of fun for me.
Every day I took care of sick patients with multiple diseases, and I loved it. But after a while, and I remember the day and the patient I was with when this thought crossed my mind, [I said to myself] 'I want to make a difference on the front side—this is such important work—but what if I could make a difference on the side before the disease starts or managing chronic illnesses?' It was at that point when I decided to become a nurse practitioner, and I went back to get my Master's at the University of Washington.
When I was working as a nurse practitioner, I still loved the acute care side. And I always kept my hand [in it] a little bit, and the hospital I was at asked me to work part-time as a night nursing supervisor. I realized then that there was something special about the business side of healthcare, too, because you could impact so many in such a short time. I decided to pursue a second Master's in health services administration at the University of Michigan.
Then we moved to North Carolina and I took a break to spend time with my three children, and later began working for one of the local hospitals doing special projects for the CEO, part-time, because I thought I just have to get back into work part-time. But it didn't take long and that part-time went to full time, and the full time went to full speed. I achieved my first executive role at that hospital as the vice president for strategy and market development. That was an important moment, because that hospital was acquired by the system that eventually became Atrium Health. That was a while back—it was in 2007— and I've been here with this system ever since.
Now we're Advocate Health after our closing in December to combine Atrium Health in the southeast and Advocate Aurora Health in the midwest. We're the fifth largest not for profit health system in the country.
I have been given such tremendous opportunities to grow professionally, to lead great teams and be a part of great teams. For example, at Atrium, I was the president of our internal consulting group. I later became the chief strategy officer with responsibilities for strategy and marketing communications. Also at that time, [I had] the opportunity to launch several new system teams like LEAN, data analytics, [and] innovation, and now [I'm] in the role of executive vice president, chief of staff, and chief integration officer for Advocate Health.
Carol Lovin, MHSA, MA, chief of staff and chief integration officer for Advocate Health. Photo courtesy of Advocate Health.
HL: How has your leadership style evolved from working as a nurse and NP to working in executive roles? How does your nursing background affect your current leadership style?
Lovin: Being on the clinical side and being a nurse delivering care, you never forget that. I always say my favorite people to work with are doctors, because it's just the nurse in me. I'm just fascinated by the clinical side. I'm sure I could, but it's hard to imagine doing the work that I do without having that firsthand knowledge and experience on the clinical side.
But what really brought me to this point is that the hospital system that I was at was acquired by what [was] Atrium Health, and that was in 2007. If you call it faith, or if you call it something else, it certainly turned out to be a move that totally defined my career. I couldn't be more excited than to be in the position that I am today.
I have a lot of people say to me, 'You've never really left that organization.' Well, I did, if you go way back in my career. But a lot of people think that you have to change organizations to grow and develop as a leader, and that's just not my experience. Because in many ways, I feel like I have changed organizations. Atrium Health changed so much over the years, and now Advocate Health is poised for limitless opportunities. Throughout these changes, it's been my goal to always run [toward] change and not away from it. With that in mind, I've just always continually been challenged with new opportunities that continue to stretch me.
Regarding leadership and role models, I just feel like I've had the privilege of learning from the best. Right now the privilege to work with Gene Woods and Jim Scottsburg, our Advocate Health CEOs, is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. These are two great healthcare leaders that now are running Advocate Health. The impact on my leadership style of all these experiences within the same organization has been, first and foremost, it's all about the team. I've learned that being a good team leader requires that I be a great team member.
Working on the integration side, we have these guiding principles we always use when we start an integration that we carry through with us:
1. Always assume virtuous intent. Whether you're a team leader or whether you're a team member, that simple principle has shaped my thinking and my actions.
2. Leadership is about influence. It's easier to influence through hierarchy when you're working with your direct reports or your team, but I've come to believe that leadership is at the next level when a leader can influence without a reporting relationship.
3. [Value] the differences in people. My goal is to always get to know someone first. Understanding where they're coming from, how they work, how they value, what they value, how they communicate, [makes] a big difference in how you work with people.
On the personal side, a couple of things have shaped my leadership style over the years and helped it evolve. One of them is being a parent and one of them is receiving a cancer diagnosis.
In 2004 I was driving home, and I tucked my hair behind my ear, and I felt a hard lump behind my ear about the size of a pea. I had stage three malignant melanoma. Melanoma is the worst kind of skin cancer you can get, and it had spread to my lymph nodes. For the next 15 months, I had everything including surgery, a year of interferon, which is immunotherapy but has the same effects as chemotherapy, and doing everything humanly possible to take care of myself and my kids, because I just didn't know what the future held.
What I realized then, and it's shaped my leadership now in healthcare, is when you work in healthcare you have to take care of your own. I was flooded with support and people believing sometimes more than I did that I could get through it. And I learned more deeply than ever before that caring about the people you work with and showing it authentically is super important.
And then finally, I've got three grown kids now and they started teaching me from the day I became a mom—I think most parents would say that. But I've always believed that the lessons I learned at home helped me at work and the lessons I learned at work helped me at home.
HL: What will be your top areas of focus this year as chief of staff and chief integration officer for Advocate Health?
Lovin: It's going to be a great year and I'm super excited over this year. When you do a deal, and then you bring organizations together, that first year of integration is when it all starts.
2023 is off to a great start, but let me set a little context. I remember the moment when Gene Woods asked me to be the chief integration officer for what was then Atrium Health. He said to me, something like, 'You're going to love this role, because it combines all the things that you love: strategy, operations, and people.' And he was right, of course, because it does bring those things together. How often do you get to do amazing work like that? When you work to unite large numbers of highly intelligent, highly successful people behind doing something that may be different than the way they did it before, it's not always easy, but I can tell you, it's always possible. I see it at work every day.
For example, one of the things this year and for several years that we'll be very focused on are six pledges that we announced when we were coming together to form one organization. Those six pledges that we announced were:
Advancing health equity
Improving affordability
Building the next generation workforce
Elevating clinical preeminence and safety
Accelerating learning and discovery
Leading environmental sustainability
Those may all sound like common things that everybody's working on, and we all should be working on those. But we came up with specific goals and things that we wanted to do within each area. And what I've realized now is, while that may be a little different twist and approach to integration, it's definitely part of the integration work and it's a huge focus for Advocate Health in 2023.
Now, in the midst of all we're doing to integrate, and find the synergies, find the savings—and I always say, synergy is not just about cuts and cost efficiency, it's about growth and revenue as well. It's about all sorts of value, some that you can measure and some that you can't, but you're better together than what you were before.
The other thing when we look at[ whether] we [are] successful with integration, is a pretty simple measure of asking ourselves constantly this question: Are our communities better off because of us coming together because of our combination? We've got to answer yes to that.
That's the reason for the pledges. That's the reason for all the work. That's the reason for making the organization continually stronger and stronger, and finding things that we can only do because we're together.
HL: What advice do you have for women and others who aspire to work in healthcare and be healthcare leaders?
Lovin: Let me start by saying being a woman in healthcare doesn't define me professionally, but being a leader in healthcare does.
First of all, prove yourself every day because there are no freebies on the way up the ladder.
Secondly, build strong relationships and network, and network, and network some more, because you just never know when you're going to need that contact or that relationship on something that you're working on.
Another thing that comes to mind, for those of us in healthcare, is to stay humbled by the work that we do. This is special work that we get to do every day, and we all take our own health for granted until we don't have it. We're serving people who are in in that position every single day.
A few other things: Embrace differences [and] add unique value, because you are an individual that is only uniquely you, so you can add different and unique value in a room. Figure out what that is and add it. And doing that means that you really know yourself, you know your strengths and your opportunities and things that you need to work on. Lead in a way that's natural for you with that. Genuinely care for your team and your teammates. And I think the last thing I would say is never, ever stop learning and loving change.
The system's VP and COO of clinical shared services will now oversee all of the health system's operations.
Salt Lake City, Utah-based Intermountain Health has named a new leader to oversee the organization's operations.
Nannette Berensen, who has a long history with Intermountain, will serve as the nonprofit health system's COO.
She first joined the health system during college as a phlebotomist. After working in roles outside of the organization, she came back to the health system in 2006 to serve as director of pharmacy services for Intermountain Medical Center and has served in numerous leadership positions since. She most recently served as VP and COO of clinical shared services.
"I have the highest respect for and confidence in Nannette, who has demonstrated a unique ability to drive innovation, bring teams together, and improve the patient experience," Rob Allen, president and CEO of Intermountain, said in a press release. "We need leaders like Nannette who are respected by our colleagues, put patients and caregivers first, and can deliver on our mission. I join other leaders across Intermountain in congratulating her, and I look forward to our continued partnership."
Allen, who previously served as the system's COO, was named the health system's new CEO by the Intermountain board of trustees in December. He succeeded the system's interim president and CEO, Lydia Jumonville, who now serves as the executive sponsor of Integration for the health system until her planned retirement at the end of 2023.
"I am honored, humbled, and excited to serve as COO," Berensen said in a statement. "I am passionate about what Intermountain Health stands for as an organization and so grateful for the work our 60,000 caregivers engage in every day to make a difference in peoples’ lives and to serve our communities well. There are formidable challenges facing healthcare that will require the collective wisdom and efforts of all of us to position Intermountain Health for future success. I am confident that by working together, we will be successful."
Additionally, the health system officially changed its name from Intermountain Healthcare to Intermountain Health last week, to reflect the system's "added emphasis on keeping people healthy, as well as continuing to provide world-class medical care at its hospitals and clinics," the system said in a press release. The system also has an updated logo to reflect the name change.
The new name was originally announced in 2022, and was changed based on feedback from consumers, patients, and employees. Branding will be gradually updated during a several-year-long phase, starting within the system's websites and digital tools.
The ambulatory sector saw the most job growth during the first month of 2023.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the healthcare sector was among the top sectors to experience widespread growth during January 2023.
Healthcare added 58,000 jobs last month, with significant growth experienced in the ambulatory healthcare sector (+30,000 jobs.) Additionally, nursing and residential care facilities gained 17,000 jobs while hospitals gained 11,000 jobs.
The sector is continuing steady job growth from the end of 2022, which gained 55,000 jobs in December. Last year, healthcare added an average of 47,000 jobs per month.
A big focus for hospitals and health systems will continue to be to fill critically needed doctor, nurse, and staff positions, a feat which has plagued the healthcare sector long before the COVID-19 pandemic.
This is quite a difference from the 18,000 jobs added in January 2022, and hopefully reflects positive job growth for the year. But we'll have to wait and see if the sector continues its upwards trajectory.
Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 517,000 in January, according to the BLS. This caused little change to the 3.4% unemployment rate.
In addition to the healthcare sector, widespread job gains were also experienced in the leisure and hospitality sector and the professional and business services sector.
The CEO of Children's Hospital and Medical Center in Omaha shares the importance of culture, grit, and being a creative problem solver.
Chanda Chacón, MPH, FACHE, may only be five feet tall, but her passion, energy, and grit make her feel so much bigger as a healthcare leader.
Chacón has a personal connection to pediatric healthcare and has served in leadership roles in the sector for more than 20 years. She currently serves as president and CEO of Children's Hospital and Medical Center in Omaha, Nebraska, which offers primary care, specialty care, urgent care, and virtual care for children and adolescents in the region, and most importantly, officers support to those children and their families.
In a recent interview with HealthLeaders, Chacón shares her career journey and discusses the importance of empathy and grit as a healthcare leader and the creative ways the pediatric healthcare center has worked to address current pain points.
This transcript has been edited for clarity and brevity.
HealthLeaders: What led you to work in pediatric healthcare?
Chanda Chacón: It's probably my favorite story to tell. When I was a preteen, I was in a car wreck and had a back injury, and was shuffled around the medical system for two years. I lived in an area in Texas that had an independent children's hospital, but more than 30 years ago we weren't great at advertising why children's hospitals were better for kids and families.
I had dedicated parents who are committed and struggled in a really challenging healthcare arena to understand what the best thing was to do for me. We went to more than 20 physicians in different health systems in the area and it was a traumatic journey for my family. We finally landed with a provider who was not pediatric; it changed the direction of my life, not only because I ended up having a spinal fusion with him, but I learned about how he was working to help make sure I had great outcomes. I learned a lot about what a great process looked like from him.
What I knew at that point was I wanted to be in the medical field; I wanted to be in healthcare. But I didn't think I wanted to be a physician because I wanted to have an impact on what I thought was the challenge in the [healthcare system]: how complicated it was, how challenging it was for families. I wanted to make sure that I could do something to give people better memories than my family had.
I wish I had a clear path of how that worked, [but] it was more kind of luck. I have an undergraduate degree in biology and Spanish. My graduate work is in public health management. I didn't know exactly where that would take me, but what I knew is when I interviewed at Yale, my advisor had worked in the Partners Healthcare System, and I got very passionate about how I can make an impact. She helped me get on that journey.
At that point in my life, I still had never been in a children's hospital. I started interviewing for administrative fellowships after graduate school. I interviewed at Texas Children's Hospital in Houston … and I remember walking into Texas Children's and I thought, 'I have to work here.' It felt like a place where kids and families could be taken care of. And that really was the start of my career journey in pediatric healthcare.
At the end of my career at Texas Children's I was at one of our community hospitals because I wanted to get back to the core of why I got into this, which was families, relationships, building a system that was powerful, to help people in some of their most challenging times. I got an opportunity to go to Arkansas Children's in Little Rock and try to do what we did in Houston across the state of Arkansas. That was an amazing opportunity because if I truly wanted to make an impact in child health, I needed to go somewhere where I could test the skills and try them out of what I'd learned at Texas Children's. I was there four years as the system COO. I learned how rural healthcare works. When you're in an environment that [has] four kids per square mile, how do you provide care from a children's hospital to families in that environment?
In September of 2020 I came here to Omaha to Children's. The reason I made the journey here was the potential of this children's hospital and the people. That's what powers great organizations and that's what powers awesome outcomes, engagement, and excitement about the work. It's not about facilities or infrastructure, it's truly about the people. When I came here and met the team, I remember thinking to myself, 'This is the most amazing place I've ever walked into.' We had the most passionate, committed people from physicians, food service, nurses, support. We were opening the Hubbard Center For Children. We had great community support. It was about pulling that together to put us in the right direction.
Chanda Chacón, president and CEO, Children's Hospital and Medical Center. Photo courtesy of Children's Hospital and Medical Center.
HL:We're currently dealing with a healthcare staffing crisis that's been happening all over the country. As a children's hospital, how have you fared and how are you working to combat it?
Chacón: We talk about people first, and that we're going to make decisions that put our team members at the beginning of the equation. I truly believe if you do that, outcomes, quality, financial success, engagement, experience, those all are the results of investing in your people. We really double down on that and we're very vocal, very open. We talk about not only creative benefits, but creative ways that we helped people with well-being. We didn't shy away from these challenging times. We don't have all the answers; we were very upfront about that, and very clear about investing in people, investing in our programs that helped people find integration, and do the right thing for them.
Not only was it helpful to the people on our team, it's also been helpful for people we've been recruiting. They know we actually care about them as individuals. For people to feel tied to an organization and feel like they want to live their career out at an organization, you have to provide more than just pay in forms of gratitude. We did a lot of work around engaging our team members in ways that let them know we saw them, that we heard them, that they were valuable.
That also programmed us to look at how do we operate differently. The challenge in this time was that it wasn't just short staffing on the nursing side, it was every role [for which] we didn't have enough people. That was new for us, and so we had to start looking differently at how we did work, and how do we create teams that are efficient and effective to get work done in different ways, and not wait for it to go back to normal.
There's some good with pushing us to think differently about the work we do, and how we do it, and get more creative. I truly see it as an opportunity, not as woe is me, woe is us in healthcare. We just have to figure out how to be different, how to be excellent.
HL: What are some pain points you're focused on?
Chacón: The people side of it is a huge top priority, always, because that's what powers the work we do. So how do we become the employer of choice? How do we get people across state lines to come work here? And tell our story more broadly?
As we think in the pediatric space, how do you provide access to amazing pediatric healthcare that we can provide in an independent children's hospital to rural parts of our state? This is not unique to Nebraska, it's many states that look like this. How do you do that in a way that makes that care accessible but also not duplicative, [where] you can leverage a smaller footprint of staffing or of infrastructure to provide that care? Telehealth is a great way to do that. Partnerships and relationships that aren't bricks and mortar, but allow you to see families close to their home. Digital technology framework is going to be so powerful; it has been already; it's been a great uptick during this last couple of years to help us provide a seamless level of care.
We have some amazing programs that we're doing at Children's. Project Austin is one of them, that allows us to take our most chronic children who are stable, but live in rural parts of our state, and allows us to [give the family] the medical record of their information. We've created an app for this so that our EMR is loaded in, there's a QR code that is either on that child's wheelchair or their car seat. We go into the community, we train EMTs, we train paramedics, we train the healthcare providers in that city where that child lives to say, 'Here's what this child's normal looks like. It might look different, but here's their challenges and here's how you can help them stay close to home as long as possible, safely, with high quality.' Those kinds of programs and that creativity and uniqueness for those niche markets and populations is really going to be essential.
The other piece is around mental health in the pediatric population and adolescent population. We are not unlike the rest of the country in the surge that we are seeing in our emergency departments, primary care, specialty care. We've got to do better. It's incumbent on us in children's health to do that. We're doing work now in Omaha, working with our community and some really generous donors to build a campus that is an inpatient facility of 38 beds. It will also have 40 partial hospitalization appointments a day, a primary care clinic, our outpatient behavioral health, eating disorders program, and urgent care. We're building that hub, but we're also building the spokes that go out further into the community, because our goal is to get ahead of that curve to work with partners in the community, work in schools with educators, and help.
I'm proud of the partnerships we have, not only with community partners, but with other healthcare partners. Normally, you see competition and we're not seeing that in our space. We're seeing that partnership and support from the state as well. It's something we have to do to make sure that we have a healthy population in the future in all of our states.
About 50% of kids are covered by Medicaid, so that's always top of mind for us because if we can keep kids healthy, we keep communities healthy long-term. It's important that we look at understanding who Medicaid serves, and if it's serving half of our kids, we have to have that top of mind to consider that as we move forward.
HL: What advice do you have for women and others who are interested in working in healthcare leadership?
Chacón: You have to have grit and grace. The grit to be persistent to go after hard challenges, hard problems, and the grace to realize you're not perfect, and that you should chase excellence not perfection.
For me it was about chasing excellence. I always wanted to build my toolkit to be able to be the person that people would have to pick because I prepared myself so well. It was more about being the kind of person that was a lifelong learner in leadership, so that people saw I can adapt and be agile as we change in healthcare.
I would encourage people to realize that you have to be persistent and knowing that failure is just an opportunity for you to try something else and not give up. There were so many times where I could have said this is too hard. And instead, I just said, 'Hey, I've learned a ton from this. What's the next pivot? Where are we going to go? How are we going to do this?'
Healthcare is hard. But anything that's worth having is worth struggling and striving for. We need great leaders in healthcare who are willing to do that.
The health system's previous EVP and chief strategy and innovation officer stepped into his new role on February 1.
Ascension, a nonprofit Catholic health network headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri announced that a new system president has been appointed to "ensure the ongoing flourishing of its national health ministry."
The system's president and CEO, Joseph Impicciche, JD, MHA, appointed Eduardo Conrado to serve as the system's new president, effective February 1. Conrado previously served as the system's EVP and chief strategy and innovation officer, where he led the development and execution of Ascension's strategic plan.
"Eduardo is a gifted servant leader with the background, experience, and talent to help us lead change in this new role as we respond to an evolving healthcare environment," Impicciche said in a statement.
Conrado previously served on the Ascension board of directors from 2014 to 2018. In September 2018 he joined Ascension as EVP and chief digital officer, where he led the implementation of technology to create exceptional consumer and clinical experience across the system.
Before joining Ascension, Conrado served in numerous leadership positions at Motorola Solutions, a telecommunications equipment company. He joined as SVP and chief marketing officer in 1992, and also served as the SVP of marketing and IT, chief innovation officer, and chief strategy and innovation officer during his tenure.
Additionally, Ascension also announced that the system's COO, Craig Cordola, will be transitioning into the role of EVP, Ascension Capital.
In his role as COO, Cordola was responsible for the system's patient volume and revenue aspects for the whole ministry, which serves patient communities in 19 states. Cordola joined Ascension in 2017 to serve as ministry marketing executive for Ascension Texas.
Prior to joining Ascension, Cordola served in leadership roles for Memorial Hermann Health System.
"We are grateful for Craig's contributions and commitment as a servant leader of our ministry and wish him continued blessings and great success with Ascension Capital," Impicciche said.
CEO turnover quieted down in December following what appeared to be an uptick in exits.
Hospital CEO exits fell at the end of 2022 following an overall trend across all U.S. sectors, according to the a new report from Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
In December 2022, only six hospital CEOs made role changes, including retiring from their position or leaving to serve in a new role, slowing down what seemed like an end-of-the-year uptick in exits.
"The pandemic changed how many hospitals and healthcare companies operated," Andrew Challenger, senior vice president of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc. said in a statement. "The industry was plagued by staffing issues and burnout at all levels."
While the hospital and healthcare sector continues to be plagued by these issues, and CEOs announce their intent to retire or leave to fill new positions, there wasn't a staggering amount of hospital CEO exits made during 2022. In total, 103 hospital CEOs made exits during the year, a decline from the 112 that made exits in 2021.
And while the hospital and healthcare sectors were among the leading sectors with CEO turnover in the months leading up to the end of the year, the government and nonprofit sector led turnover with 271 CEOs making exits, while the technology sector saw 137 CEOs make changes during the year.
According to the report, CEO turnover across all US companies rose 5% from 95 in November to 100 in December 2022. This brings December's turnover rate down 6% from the 106 CEOs who made exits in December 2021.
Overall, companies across the sector announced 1,235 CEO exits in 2022, which is down 8% from the 1,337 that was tracked in 2021. This is the lowest annual turnover rate since 2017, Challenger, Gray & Christmas reports.
"Companies appear to be holding steady with their leadership after years of leadership changes and unprecedented uncertainty," Challenger said in a statement.
Jenny Collopy has served as interim VP and chief marketing and communications officer since July 2022.
The Christ Hospital Health Network recently named a new permanent marketing executive for the Cincinnati, Ohio-based health system.
The organization's president and CEO, Debbie Hayes, promoted Jenny Collopy to serve as VP and chief marketing and communications officer. She recently served in the role on an interim basis, beginning in July 2022.
"Jenny's deep knowledge of The Christ Hospital Health Network, coupled with her deep knowledge of the consumers in this region and how they make healthcare decisions, makes her the ideal leader for the future," Hayes said in a press release. "I have personally had the pleasure of working with Jenny over the last several years and am most grateful for her unwavering commitment to our mission and bringing that mission to life through the publications of the extraordinary work we do at The Christ Hospital Health Network every day."
Collopy joined The Christ Hospital Health Network in 2015 when she became a senior marketing consultant for the organization's health and vascular service line. Since then, she's served in a variety of leadership roles for the system, including as senior manager of service line marketing strategies and associate director of strategy, public relations, and internal communications.
During her tenure, Collopy oversaw numerous key initiatives, including the Network's expansion, including a new hospital in Liberty Township, and numerous primary locations in Northern Kentucky. She also oversaw new program launches, key strategic partnerships, and programs, and led all internal communications and public relations efforts for The Christ Hospital Health Network during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Jenny's passion for The Christ Hospital Health Network and its mission can be felt in every piece of work she touches and every room she walks in," Hayes said. "She is deeply committed to telling the amazing stories strategically and broadly so everyone in our region, and the nation, knows and feels our commitment to providing exceptional outcomes and the finest experiences for our patients and their families."
The health system has a new operational leadership structure to drive strategic priorities within the system's acute care hospital market.
For-profit Tenet Healthcare Corporation made several key leadership updates as part of the company's strategic priority to "help ensure continued performance" for its hospital market.
The announcement, released on Thursday, includes health system leader retirements and group president appointments for the organization's health system, which has over 650 sites of care across more than 30 states.
Daniel Cancelmi, EVP and CFO of Tenet Health has announced he will retire at the end of 2023. A national search is currently ongoing, with the hopes of identifying a "high-performing" successor prior to Cancelmi's retirement so that he can mentor and onboard them as part of the transition process.
"Dan was instrumental in the recent transformation of Tenet's performance and improvement of the balance sheet," Tenet CEO, Sam Sutaria, MD, said in a statement. "Dan is an inspirational leader with a long legacy at Tenet, starting as a hospital CFO to becoming our corporate CFO. He is a tireless advocate for our people and company. The strength of our finance function at Corporate and across our business units is a testament to Dan’s leadership, operational acumen, and commitment to Tenet."
Additionally, the company's hospital segment has promoted three leaders to serve as group presidents, a new operational leadership structure to allow for greater agility in executing strategic priorities within the system's acute care hospital market, according to the press release.
Maggie Gill will serve as Group President – Eastern Group, where she will oversee hospital operations in Florida, South Carolina, and Massachusetts.
Matthew Stone will serve as Group President – Central Group, where he will oversee hospital operations in Central and South Texas, Alabama, and Tennessee.
Nicholas Tejeda will serve as Group President – Western Group, where he will oversee hospital operations in West Texas, Northern California, and in Orange County and Los Angeles, California.
"Tenet has exceptional talent throughout its operational ranks," Sutaria said. "The Group Presidents have a track record for driving results, developing high-performing teams, and enhancing access to care. I am confident in their ability to help lead our hospital segment."
Also announced on Thursday, Tenet Health Corp. expects to exceed the midpoint of its latest FY22 adjusted EBITDA outlook range. The press release says "Although Tenet’s financial statement close process is not yet fully completed, the Company anticipates its Adjusted EBITDA, excluding any fourth quarter stimulus grant income related to the pandemic, will be slightly above the mid-point of its Adjusted EBITDA guidance of $3.425 billion for the year ended December 31, 2022."
"Our business units continued to demonstrate effective management capabilities and delivered strong results in the fourth quarter," Sutaria said. "All three of our business units are expected to produce Adjusted EBITDA excluding grant income that was at or slightly above the mid-point of our guidance. We look forward to providing more details in a few weeks along with sharing plans to support a successful 2023."
Tenet Healthcare Corp. will release its Q4 2022 results on Thursday, February 9.
Airica Steed, EdD, MBA, RN, succeeded Akram Boutros, MD, as CEO in December.
Airica Steed, EdD, MBA, RN, is breaking the glass ceiling in her new role as CEO of Cleveland, Ohio-based MetroHealth. She is the first woman, Black person, and nurse to lead the four-hospital nonprofit health system.
She previously served as COO of the Sinai Chicago Health System and president of Mount Sinai and Sinai Children's Hospital. She began her role on December 5, 2022, during a turbulent time for the organization, after the previous President and CEO, Akram Boutros, MD, was fired by the board of directors for allegedly authorizing himself bonuses without disclosing them to the board.
Steed spoke with HealthLeaders about transitioning into her new role, her commitment to building trust within the organization, and her passion to address health inequities.
This transcript has been edited for clarity and brevity.
HealthLeaders: With the previous CEO already out, how are you successfully transitioning into your role as CEO?
Airica Steed: I have hit the ground sprinting on rollerskates. It's obviously not the norm in terms of a normal transition, but I'm still encouraged and motivated by it. I have come into a situation where I have such an amazing team of people around me: a team of leaders, of supporters, of advocates, and that has smoothed the way in terms of my transition. As I've transitioned here, I feel like the red carpet has been rolled out for me. This doesn't feel like just an ordinary job or ordinary role, this truly feels like I've transitioned into a family atmosphere. I'm right at home.
HL:During your first 100 days you're taking part in a listening and engagement tour. What have you learned so far and what pain points are currently top of mind?
Steed: It's a very intentional way for me to really listen, learn, take heed, understand, [and] unlearn in a lot of respects. Certainly, I don't want to bring bad habits or anything that is going to take us off the path that we need to be on. Coupled with not just focusing on the four walls of Metro Health, but outside of the four walls of Metro Health as well. So, getting engaged with the community early, understanding what the community needs in a profound way, [and] starting to get that voice heard and open up seats at the table so we can make a real difference.
I've always acknowledged and recognized the fact that this is such a magnificent organization because of the people [who] serve and are dedicating themselves every single day. But at the same time, I would say the challenge is how do we keep the people engaged, especially given the fact that we have not been shielded from the same workforce challenges, vacancies, and shortages that are reflective of the nation. Everyone is grappling with that, and everyone is trying to get their arms wrapped around it.
I really want to get upfront and close and center around that particular issue, to come up with a strategy, not just MetroHealth-specific, but in a collaborative way of cracking that nut.
HL:Being the first woman, person of color, and nurse to lead MetroHealth, what are your thoughts on breaking those barriers?
Steed: Honestly, I'm so encouraged. I'm so proud. I strongly believe that the perpetual glass ceiling has been shattered, and certainly, this is creating a heightened degree of momentum that others can follow. I'm certainly widening that door and smoothing the way for more minorities, for more women, for more people of color. No matter what you represent, you can absolutely make a difference. At the end of the day, I'm proud, and above and beyond just the professional sense, I'm proud of what it represents for my children. It certainly demonstrates a sense of encouragement and hope that they can do this too.
HL: How will your background as a nurse help you lead as CEO?
Steed: I'm a fourth-generation nurse—I carry that forward in my leadership, steering every single role that I've had. It speaks volumes when you've been in the trenches, and you can understand the pain, the need, and how to walk the walk and talk the talk. I carry that experience forward with me, because it makes me much more in tune, more empathetic, more vulnerable [and] to be able to make the adjustments that I need to lead in the right way.
I'm encouraged by my background and experiences there. It also helps to shape my resolve in being resilient in general. I've walked into a very difficult challenge, and a challenge that most leaders don't have to face, but the mere fact of my background and preparation as an emergency department and critical care nurse, I'm equipped with the skillset of troubleshooting, decision-making, being able to navigate through crises in a more profound way than someone who doesn't have that experience.
HL:How will you use your position to address health inequity and racial disparities?
Steed: This is something that gets me up in the morning and keeps me up at night; this is something that fuels me to my core. My life is a representative example of healthcare inequity and disparities. I've been rocked by it in a very profound way: I lost both of my grandmothers to breast cancer, there was a byproduct of misdiagnosis and delayed diagnosis; I lost my mother to a rare form of leukemia that was late diagnosed and misdiagnosed; I lost my younger sister a little bit shy of a year ago to breast cancer after being denied the right screening that would have proactively identified the cancer prior to spreading to various aspects of her body.
I, myself, am a byproduct being a preeclampsia survivor, and knowing what it's like to be separated from your children for weeks on end and being able to experience that. Those stories have fueled my passion and my purpose around disrupting the broken system, and disrupting the centuries of inequity, misdiagnosis, delayed care, and mistreatment. That is a front and center focus for me.
I don't want to just make incremental changes to health equity. I want to eradicate healthcare disparities. I want to improve the life expectancy and eradicate the death gap that shows up for minorities. specifically. Those things are front and center on my priority list as I take the organization into the future.
I want to emphasize both the wounds that you see on a regular basis and you treat most profoundly, but also want to wrap my arm around the wounds that you don't see that [are] crippling our communities and social drivers of health that are impacting the lives of those that we serve.
I'm honored to be able to give voice to the right purpose and the right causes that uplift the way we provide care, and the way we center around that whole person. I'm just delighted to be in a position where I can impact positive change for the better.
HL:How are you addressing the previous CEO's ongoing bonus controversy?
Steed: I'm doing a lot around this. A first step as the CEO of this institution is how do we deal and navigate with this crisis at hand. I can say loud and clear and unequivocally that the board made a courageous, difficult decision. I'm moving us ahead and we're not going to be impacted by it. We're trying to put this in our rearview mirror and start to turn the spotlight back on the great people in the organization. But in doing so, we know that we have to start to break away the sense of distrust because of what occurred.
With that being said, one of the first things that I've done in my role is to ensure that we have the right safeguards and we do a comprehensive review and analysis of all of our processes, all of our procedures, [and] take a heightened look at our people to make sure that we make the necessary adjustments along the way to ensure that no such situation ever occurs again in the future. We've enlisted the support of a third-party outside evaluator, and they're in the throes of conducting a detailed assessment looking deeply under the hood to help us to shape our way forward out of this.
I have a very positive outlook on our future. I have a heightened degree of confidence in our board. I have a heightened degree of competence in our team and the growing team that I'm starting to build as part of my role here.
HL:How will you work with Olusegun Ishmael, MD, MBA, the newly named MetroHealth COO and president of the hospital division?
Steed: I'm extremely excited about this. I want to emphasize that Dr. Ishmael was my right hand in Chicago in my former role at Sinai Chicago. He comes heavily recruited and highly recommended for all the great work that we got accomplished in Chicago. He, like I, is ready to roll his sleeves up and hit the ground sprinting out of the gate, because we have a great duty to serve and a great mission to accomplish. His focus is going to be on the hospital division, and a lot of the key areas of focus [are] centered under his charge.