CEO and founding president of California HealthCare Foundation to step down, and other moves

Dr. Mark Smith, founding president and CEO of the California HealthCare Foundation, will step down at the end of the year. Smith, 61, will continue as a clinical faculty member at the University of California at San Francisco and practicing at San Francisco General Hospital's Positive Health Program for AIDS patients. He chaired the Institute of Medicine's Learning Health Care System in America committee. Before CHCF, he was executive VP of the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Indiana Gov. Mike Pence named Dr. William VanNess II the state's health commissioner. VanNess, 67, recently retired as president and CEO of Community Hospital Anderson (Ind.), a position he had held since 1997. As health commissioner, he replaces Dr. Gregory Larkin. … Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick tapped hospital executive John Polanowicz to be the state's secretary of health and human services. Polanowicz had been president of Steward Health Care System's St. Elizabeth's Medical Center, Brighton, Mass., since May 2011. He assumed the role in Patrick's administration from JudyAnn Bigby, who joined the department in 2007 and led the implementation of the state's 2006 healthcare reform law.

Baylor College of Medicine has hired Wayne Keathley as president of the new Baylor College of Medicine Medical Center and Health Network, which is likely to open in phases starting in 2014. Keathley, 62, currently serves as president and COO of Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. Houston-based Baylor College of Medicine Medical Center and Health Network will include a hospital, and the health network will serve as the umbrella organization for the college's clinical programs and collaborations. Keathley, who assumes the role in February, will be responsible for establishing the timeline to open the medical center. Mount Sinai named Dr. David Reich, the hospital's chairman of anesthesiology, as the interim president. ... Dr. Anthony Tedeschi, chief medical officer for Vanguard Health Systems' four Chicago-area hospitals, has been named CEO of Weiss Memorial Hospital in Chicago. Tedeschi, 51, will retain his CMO post for the Chicago-area hospitals as he replaces Dr. Jeff Steinberg, who stepped down in December. Tedeschi was a founding partner of the Sibery Group, an Oak Brook, Ill.-based healthcare consulting group.