Steward Health Care System, Boston, hired Joshua Putter as COO. Putter most recently was a president at Health Management Associates, where he managed 13 hospitals in Florida, according to a Steward news release. He replaces Robert Guyon, who is taking another leadership position in the system, a Steward spokeswoman said. Putter's age was not provided. … Dr. Steven Strongwater resigned as CEO of Stony Brook University Hospital, effective Nov. 15, as a result of a decision “made some time ago” by the university to reorganize its health sciences department, according to a Stony Brook statement. Fred Sganga, 53, executive director of the Long Island State Veterans Home, was named interim CEO. Strongwater, 57, said in a written statement that he was “evaluating a number of opportunities.” … HCA's Kansas City, Mo.-area system named Damond Boatwright CEO of Overland Park (Kan.) Regional Medical Center, effective Oct. 17, according to a news release. Boatwright, 39, has been CEO of another HCA hospital in the region, Lee's Summit (Mo.) Medical Center, since 2007. Boatwright also worked for HCA in the Charleston, S.C., and Richmond, Va., markets and completed the company's COO training course with its west Florida division. Boatwright was a Modern Healthcare Up & Comer in 2009.

Walt Havenstein, CEO of federal information technology services contractor Science Applications International Corp., will retire June 15, 2012, SAIC said in a news release. Havenstein, 62, is leaving for personal reasons, the company said. Havenstein is quoted in the release saying that the board would consider internal and external candidates, and that he would participate in the selection and transition. The news of his departure came days after McLean, Va.-based SAIC reported that the records of about 4.9 million Military Health System patients were breached when backup tapes of a military electronic health-record system were stolen.

Joseph Cappiello was appointed COO of the Healthcare Facilities Accreditation Program. Cappiello, 66, was scheduled to join the Chicago-based not-for-profit Oct. 3, replacing George Reuther, 64. Cappiello was VP of accreditation field operations at the Joint Commission from 1998 to 2007 and then led a consultancy. Reuther is taking a new position as director of hospital affairs for the American Osteopathic Association, the accreditation program's parent, a spokeswoman said. … The National Quality Forum hired the chairwoman of the American Medical Informatics Association's Nursing Work Group, Rosemary Kennedy, to be its first VP for health information technology. Kennedy will lead efforts to develop the NQF's electronic quality measures and Web-based tools. Kennedy previously worked at the NQF as senior director of nursing and healthcare informatics. Kennedy made Modern Healthcare's list of the Top 25 Women in Healthcare in 2009.