News Makers news and information

Robert Ritz was named president of Mercy Medical Center-Des Moines (Iowa). Ritz, 51, is president and CEO of St. John's Hospital in Springfield, Ill., operated by Springfield-based Hospital Sisters Health System. In Des Moines, he takes over leadership from Dave Vellinga, who has been...
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Dr. Thomas Lee, network president for Boston-based Partners HealthCare system and CEO of Partners Community Healthcare, will join Press Ganey on July 1 as chief medical officer, a new position at the company. Lee is a practicing cardiologist and co-chair of the Committee for Performance...
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Ascension Health, St. Louis, promoted Patricia Maryland to president of healthcare operations and COO, effective July 1. Maryland, 59, is the Michigan ministry market leader for Ascension Health and president and CEO of St. John Providence Health System in Detroit. In her new role, Maryland...
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Shirley Weis, VP and chief administrative officer for the Mayo Clinic, plans to retire by the end of the year. Weis, a former emergency room nurse and a veteran of healthcare management and managed-care operations, joined the Rochester, Minn.-based system in 1995 from the insurer Blue Care...
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Seton Healthcare Family, an Austin, Texas-based division of Ascension Health, named Jesus Garza CEO, effective July 1. Garza, 60, will also start providing oversight of Ascension's Arizona ministry, Carondelet Health Network, and continue serving as the ministry market leader for Ascension...
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Dartmouth College's Geisel School of Medicine named Dr. Elliott Fisher to succeed Dr. James Weinstein as director of the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice, effective immediately. Weinstein stepped down in November 2011 to become CEO of Dartmouth-Hitchcock and...
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Bon Secours Health System appointed Carlos Beato CEO for Bon Secours New York Health System in Riverdale, effective April 15. Beato, 59, will replace Eileen Malo, interim CEO since March 2011. Beato joins Bon Secours from United Methodist Homes of New Jersey, where he served as...
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Dave Underriner, COO of Providence Health and Services, was promoted to CEO of its Oregon region. Effective April 15, Underriner, 54, will replace CEO Greg Van Pelt, who announced his retirement in February. Underriner's father, who led Providence St. Vincent Medical Center, Portland,...
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Greg Vigdor is the new president and CEO of the Arizona Hospital and Healthcare Association as of March 4. Vigdor joins the Phoenix-based organization from Seattle, where he has been president and CEO of the Washington Health Foundation since its founding in 1992. Vigdor takes over the...
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Dr. C. Everett Koop, who raised the profile of the surgeon general by riveting America's attention on the then-emerging disease known as AIDS and by railing against smoking, died in New Hampshire at age 96. The cause wasn't disclosed.
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