Changing of the guard

As healthcare executives gathered in Chicago for the American College of Healthcare Executives' annual Congress on Healthcare Leadership, three executives for large systems announced career changes.

Ron Girotto, president and CEO of the Methodist Hospital System, Houston, announced he would retire effective at the end of this year. Dr. Edward Murphy, 54, has announced that on June 30, he will step down as president and CEO of the Carilion Clinic, a seven-hospital system based in Roanoke, Va., to work in investment management and to become chairman of a hospitalist organization. And Eugene Woods will leave his position as CEO of St. Joseph Health System, Lexington, Ky., a system owned by Catholic Health Initiatives, Englewood, Colo., to become executive vice president and chief operating officer at Christus Health, Irving, Texas.

Girotto, 69, will be replaced Jan. 1 by Dr. Marc Boom, an executive vice president with Methodist and the senior operational executive for the system's flagship 965-bed Methodist Hospital, according to an e-mail from the system's board chairman, Ewing Werlein Jr. Girotto plans to spend more time with his wife and family, Werlein said.

Murphy will be replaced by Nancy Howell Agee, Carilion's COO, effective July 1. Agee, 58, has been with Carilion for 20 years. Murphy will be working with TowerBrook Capital Partners, a New York- and London-based investment firm, “to acquire and develop businesses” and work on issues concerning physician management. His other position will be with Sound Physicians, a Tacoma, Wash.-based provider of hospitalist services.

He is credited with leading Carilion's transformation from a hospital-based health system to a physician-led multispecialty clinic and toward its development as an accountable care organization. He will remain on the board and faculty of Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine and Research Institute.

Woods, 46, is expected to join Christus no later than June 1, according to a news release. He replaces Ernie Sadau, who assumed the role of president and CEO at Christus on March 1, taking the reins from the retiring Thomas Royer. In 2008, Woods was named one of Modern Healthcare's Top 25 Minority Executives in Healthcare.