Mike Keating named president, CEO of Christ Hospital Health Network, and other moves

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 leadership role from Leo Greenawalt, interim president and CEO, who has filled in since Laurie Liles stepped down in January. The association did not provide the executives' ages.

Sg2 announced the promotion of company President Steve Lefar to CEO. Lefar, 46, has served as president of the Skokie, Ill.-based healthcare strategic analytics and intelligence company for two years. He will continue to act as president, but will also assume more of the day-to-day operations that have been led by founder Michael Sachs, who will continue as chairman. Lefar's promotion was effective Feb. 12.

Christ Hospital Health Network, the parent organization of Christ Hospital in Cincinnati, named Mike Keating as the organization's president and CEO. Keating, 57, has been serving in that role since Susan Croushore stepped down last September after nearly 10 years as president and CEO of Christ Hospital. Though his background is in finance and law—as a partner at Graydon Head & Ritchey, an executive VP at Fifth Third Bancorp, and co-founder and managing partner of his private investment firm—Keating has been a board member of Christ Hospital for more than 21 years. He served as chairman for five of those years. … Matt Gerlach, Salinas Valley Memorial Healthcare System's pick for president and CEO, will not be joining the health network as planned. In February, the board of directors named Gerlach, 57, to succeed interim CEO Lowell Johnson. Gerlach was expected to come on board March 29, leaving his role as VP and COO at Glendale (Calif.) Memorial Hospital and Health Center. But on Feb. 28, Salinas Valley Memorial announced that Gerlach had turned down its offer and would stay in his position at Glendale. According to a statement released by the hospital, officials and Gerlach were unable to reach an agreement regarding contract length and severance pay. … Presence Health, Chicago, announced senior leadership changes involving three of its hospitals. John Baird was named the new CEO of Presence Our Lady of the Resurrection. Baird, 47, has been serving as president and CEO of Presence Resurrection Medical Center since 2011 and will continue in that role. Baird replaces Martin Judd at Presence OLR on April 1 as Judd moves into the CEO role at Presence Sts. Mary and Elizabeth Medical Center. Judd, 52, will succeed Margaret McDermott, 64, who plans to retire in July. Chicago-based Presence Health is the result of the November 2011 merger of Provena Health, Mokena, Ill., and Resurrection Health Care, Chicago. … Erlanger Health System tapped Kevin Spiegel, CEO of Methodist University Hospital, Memphis, Tenn., to serve as its president and CEO. Spiegel has held the top spot at Methodist University Hospital since 2008. Chattanooga, Tenn.-based Erlanger has been led by interim CEO Charlesetta Woodard-Thompson, who assumed the role after Erlanger's previous CEO, Jim Brexler, left his post in December 2011. The system expects Spiegel to assume the role by the end of March. … Valinda Rutledge resigned as president of Jewish Hospital, Louisville, Ky., and Louisville market leader for the hospital's parent, KentuckyOne Health, effective March 1. Rutledge, 58, joined Louisville-based KentuckyOne in July 2012 after leaving the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation. Dr. Chuck Peck, a consultant on the system's clinical effectiveness team, assumed the role of interim president at Jewish Hospital. KentuckyOne also announced that University of Louisville Hospital COO Ken Marshall, 50, was promoted to interim president of the hospital, which joined KentuckyOne on March 1 under a joint operating agreement. He takes over for Jim Taylor, 65, who moved into new advisory roles assisting with the transition, including overseeing fiduciary duties for the Center for Women and Infants. (The arrangement with KentuckyOne—majority owned by Catholic Health Initiatives—excludes the center, which provides reproductive services.) …

HCA promoted Jyric Sims to COO of St. Lucie Medical Center, Port St. Lucie, Fla., effective Feb. 25. Sims, 30, previously was associate COO at HCA's Clear Lake Regional Medical Center, Webster, Texas, where he started in 2011 as an associate administrator through the company's COO development program. … Wellmont Health System named Melony Goodhand COO and VP of finance at Bristol (Tenn.) Regional Medical Center. Goodhand, 53, previously was vice chancellor of finance and CFO at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock. At Bristol Regional, a spokesman said, she takes over duties from Dale Poe, formerly VP of finance, and Brad Price, formerly COO, who have moved into new roles with Kingsport, Tenn.-based Wellmont.

Medicity, a provider of health information exchange technology, named Nancy Ham its new CEO, effective Feb. 11. Before joining the Salt Lake City-based Aetna subsidiary, Ham served as president and CEO of MedVentive, a provider of performance analytics for accountable care organizations and payers. Ham, 51, succeeds Brent Dover, who left to become president of Health Catalyst, a healthcare data warehousing and analytics company, also based in Salt Lake City. Health Catalyst also named Dr. John Haughom to a newly created position of chief medical officer and senior VP. Haughom, 64, spent 18 of the past 20 years at Bellevue, Wash.-based health system PeaceHealth, including as senior VP of quality and CIO. … Titus Schleyer was chosen as the new director of the Center for Biomedical Informatics at the Regenstrief Institute in Indianapolis, effective June 1. Schleyer, 49, joins the Regenstrief Institute and Indiana University from his post as associate professor of dental public health at the University of Pittsburgh. He was also the founding director of the Center for Dental Informatics in the School of Dental Medicine and co-director of the biomedical informatics training program in the School of Medicine. Schleyer takes over the role from Regenstrief Institute President and CEO Dr. William Tierney, who has also been serving as the center's interim director since March 2011, when b>Dr. Marc Overhage left for Siemens Healthcare. … The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston's School of Biomedical Informatics hired Jiajie Zhang as its new dean, effective March 1. Zhang, 49, has served as interim dean of the school since former dean Dr. Jack Smith stepped down April 1, 2012. In this role, Zhang directed the school's curriculum redesign, hired additional faculty members and guided a space consolidation plan to facilitate communication and collaboration. Zhang, who holds a doctorate in cognitive science and joined the UTHealth faculty in 1998, conducts research in biomedical informatics, cognitive science, human-centered computing, medical decisionmaking and information visualization. … Business software maker Infor hired Dr. Barry Chaiken, 56, as chief medical information officer. Chaiken will be responsible for helping design, build and implement the company's suite of healthcare applications. He comes to Infor from DocsNetwork, where he was CMO.

City of Hope President Robert Stone will succeed retiring CEO Dr. Michael Friedman at the Duarte, Calif.-based center for treatment and research for life-threatening diseases. Stone will assume a dual role of president and CEO and will take over at the end of the year. City of Hope officials credited Friedman, a former acting FDA commissioner, with overseeing a decade of “remarkable growth” since he joined the organization in 2003. Stone joined the group in 1996 as associate general counsel and was named president last year. Their ages weren't provided.