Dr. Elliot Fisher named new director of Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice, and other news

Dartmouth College's Geisel School of Medicine named Dr. Elliott Fisher to succeed Dr. James Weinstein as director of the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice, effective immediately. Weinstein stepped down in November 2011 to become CEO of Dartmouth-Hitchcock and president of Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health, Lebanon, N.H. Weinstein's age was unavailable at deadline. Fisher, 60, is stepping down as the Dartmouth Institute's director of population health and policy, but will remain co-director of the Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care. He is also the James W. Squire professor of medicine and community and family medicine for the college's medical school.

The Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, named Dr. Patrick Cawley VP of clinical operations and executive director of the Medical University Hospital Authority, replacing CEO Stuart Smith, who recently retired. Cawley, an internist, previously served as chief medical officer of the Medical University Hospital Authority, an MUSC subsidiary. Before that, he was chief of hospital medicine and vice chairman of clinical of affairs in MUSC's department of medicine. Cawley, 47, is past president of the Society of Hospital Medicine and co-founded the first hospital medicine program at Duke University. … Raleigh General Hospital, Beckley, W.Va., named David Darden CEO, effective May 1. Darden, 56, returns to Raleigh General after serving as its COO and CEO from 1994 to 2001, when the hospital was owned by Nashville-based HCA. The facility is now part of LifePoint Hospitals, Brentwood, Tenn. Darden replaces Allen Peters, who stepped down in January because of health reasons, LifePoint said in a news release. Darden most recently served as CEO of another LifePoint hospital, Clinch Valley Medical Center, Richlands, Va. … Lori Price was hired as president of Gottlieb Memorial Hospital, Melrose Park, Ill. For the past three years, Price, 47, was president of St. Joseph Regional Medical Center in Plymouth, Ind., and administrator of St. Joseph Physician Network. She began her career as a medical-surgical nurse. In 2004, Modern Healthcare named her as one of its Up & Comers. She assumes her new job May 8 at Gottlieb—part of Trinity Health's Loyola University Health System, Maywood, Ill.—and replaces Patricia Cassidy, who was named chief strategy officer at Alexian Brothers Health System in Arlington Heights, Ill.