Newsmakers

UAB Health System, Birmingham, Ala., named Dr. Jorge Alsip the system's first CMO, effective Oct. 4. Alsip, 52, currently is medical director of consulting services for Cerner Corp., Kansas City, Mo. He also has consulted on UAB Health's electronic health-record initiatives since 2006. Alsip is a board-certified emergency physician and previously practiced for 20 years at Springhill Medical Center in Mobile, Ala. In his new role, Alsip will work with the medical staff to develop UAB Health's clinical strategy with health information technology. … Adventist Hinsdale (Ill.) Hospital appointed Michael Goebel as its CEO, effective immediately. Goebel, 52, replaced David Crane, who served at the same time as CEO for the Adventist Midwest Health network and will now dedicate himself to that job. Since March 2010, Goebel had been Hinsdale Hospital's COO. He previously served as COO at Littleton (Colo.) Adventist Hospital and CFO at Regional West Medical Center in Scottsbluff, Neb. …

HCA, Nashville, said it will combine two divisions and change the responsibilities of the two division presidents who are affected by the change. The company will combine its Midwest and Delta divisions into a new MidAmerica division based in Kansas City, Mo., which was the home of the Midwest division. Stephen Corbeil, president of the Midwest division since 2007, will become president of HCA's TriStar division, based in Nashville. Corbeil, 51, is replacing Lawrence Kloess III, whose retirement was announced in September. Corbeil worked for Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare Corp. from 2000 to 2007 after working for HCA in Dallas from 1996 to 2000. The TriStar division includes 17 hospitals and nine surgery centers, mostly in Tennessee. Mel Lagarde, president of the Delta division since 1995, will take on the role of president of the MidAmerica division and relocate to Kansas City. The new division includes 18 hospitals and six surgery centers in Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Missouri. Lagarde, 54, has worked for HCA for 32 years. …

Community Hospital, an HCA-owned hospital in New Port Richey, Fla., named Alex Romanchik to be its CFO. Romanchik replaces Glenn Romig, who in August was named CFO at HCA's Osceola Medical Center, an HCA hospital in Kissimmee, Fla. Romanchik comes to Community Hospital from an HCA regional office in Charleston, S.C., where he worked as the division controller for the for-profit hospital chain's south Atlantic division since December 2008. Before that job, he was a market controller for three HCA facilities in the Jacksonville, Fla., market. … Vanguard Health Systems, Nashville, named William Brown as CEO of Westlake Hospital in Melrose Park, Ill. Brown moves from Provena Health, where he was system senior VP and president and CEO of Provena St. Joseph Hospital in Elgin, Ill. Brown replaces the retired Patricia Shehorn, who, for a period, served as CEO for Westlake and West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park, Ill., at the same time. …

Vanguard Health Systems also named Dr. Jeffrey Steinberg CEO of Weiss Memorial Hospital in Chicago. Steinberg, 51, replaces Frank Molinaro, who left Weiss to take the CEO position at Vanguard's Paradise Valley Hospital in Phoenix beginning Sept. 30. Steinberg, a urological surgeon by training, comes to the Chicago hospital from St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center in Hartford, Conn., where he served as senior VP for health policy and disparity, and chairman and director of surgery. … Capella Healthcare, Franklin, Tenn., found its new general counsel on the legal staff of fellow investor-owned chain LifePoint Hospitals, Brentwood, Tenn. Capella named Neil Kunkel, 47, senior VP and general counsel, effective Oct. 1. Kunkel has been a VP and associate general counsel at LifePoint since it was founded in 1998. Kunkel worked for HCA prior to the formation of LifePoint. At Capella he replaces Howard Wall, who left in June to become executive VP and chief administrative officer of RegionalCare Hospital Partners, Brentwood.

Amedisys hired Bridget Montana as chief nursing officer in its Amedisys Hospice division. Before joining Amedisys on Sept. 26, Montana, 54, was COO for Hospice of the Western Reserve, a Cleveland-based not-for-profit that served about 6,800 patients in 2010, according to its website. As CNO of Amedisys Hospice, a newly created position, Montana will be responsible for nursing and clinical care at the company's 94 hospice sites in the U.S., the company said in a news release.