Liska taking COO post at Mercy Health

Lee Ann Liska, 46, has left her post as executive director and senior vice president of University Hospital, Cincinnati, and next month is set to become chief operating officer of Mercy Health Partners, an Ohio division of Catholic Health Partners. The 481-bed University Hospital is one of two acute-care hospitals left in the splintered Health Alliance of Greater Cincinnati, and Liska's move traces the steps of 209-bed Jewish Hospital, which dropped out of the alliance and was acquired by Mercy Health Partners in a deal that closed in March.

In a memo to employees, health alliance Chairman George Strike acknowledged the retirement last week of Dorman Fawley, co-CEO of the alliance since last year. Fawley had been the alliance's COO since 1997 and along with Rick Hinds assumed leadership of the organization following the departure of Ken Hanover.

The memo also indicates the board itself will be reorganized again soon as the organization adjusts to the terms of a settlement agreement that leaves the University of Cincinnati as the only remaining party to the alliance. Strike writes that the current five-member board will oversee the alliance until the official formation of UC Health, a new nameplate created to include University Hospital and West Chester (Ohio) Medical Center, a hospital that the alliance opened last year.