Cleveland Clinic makes leadership changes, and other moves

The Cleveland Clinic made several leadership changes at its Cleveland-area community hospitals. The system said in a news release that the changes are “part of a natural transition in leadership and will position Cleveland Clinic to better meet the needs of a growing organization and to manage the new model of care resulting from healthcare reform.” Dr. Catherine Keating, chief of regional hospital medical affairs and quality on the community hospital regional executive team, will become the associate chief of staff responsible for clinical integration across Cleveland Clinic, effective Nov. 1.

Lutheran Hospital President Dr. Brian Donley will become chief of regional hospitals medical affairs and quality and VP of regional hospitals, also effective Nov. 1. At Lutheran, Donley will be succeeded by Dr. Donald Malone, professor and chairman of the department of psychiatry and psychology and director of the Center for Behavioral Health. Dr. Brian Harte, president of South Pointe Hospital in Warrensville Heights, will be president of Cleveland's Hillcrest Hospital, where he previously was COO.

Jeffrey Leimgruber, Hillcrest's president since December 2006 and a Cleveland Clinic administrator and executive since 1997, is leaving the system. Dr. Robert Juhasz, medical director of the system's Willoughby Hills Family Health Center, will become South Pointe's president. Jan Murphy will leave her post as president of Fairview Hospital to become the new COO of Sheikh Khalifa Medical City in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

Dr. Neil Smith, VP of medical Affairs at Fairview Hospital in Cleveland, will succeed Murphy as president. Cleveland Clinic did not disclose the executives' ages. … University Hospital in Newark, N.J., named James Gonzalez president and CEO, effective July 1. The appointment of Gonzalez, 59, coincides with University Hospital's shift to a standalone entity, also effective July 1, after previously being operated by the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. Gonzalez had been acting in an interim capacity as president and CEO of the hospital since July 2011. He also serves as president and CEO of Broadway House for Continuing Care, a Newark facility affiliated with University Hospital that specializes in treating people with HIV/AIDS. Gonzalez joined University Hospital in 1999 as assistant VP of administration. …

Steve Erixon is now CEO of both Lander (Wyo.) Regional Hospital and Riverton (Wyo.) Memorial Hospital. Erixon, CEO of Lander Regional since June 2012, took interim leadership of Riverton Memorial, about 25 miles away, at the start of 2013. Both are operated by Brentwood, Tenn.-based LifePoint Hospitals. … Phil Rivera, COO at Memorial Medical Center in Las Cruces, N.M., was promoted to the new role of president of physician services, directing the day-to-day operations of the hospital's physician practices. Rivera will also continue serving as COO during a search for a replacement. Rivera had been VP and CFO at the Las Cruces hospital, which is operated by Brentwood, Tenn.-based LifePoint Hospitals, and returned in 2010 after a five-year stint as CFO at University Medical Center in El Paso, Texas.

CompuGroup Medical USA, a Boston-based subsidiary of Germany's CompuGroup Medical, made several changes to its executive team. Norbert Fischl, who was appointed CGM's senior VP for North America in April, will now move into the position of CGM USA's CEO, previously occupied by Henrik Crüger. Fischl had served as CGM's senior VP for Northern Europe for two years before moving to the North American role. Kent Broström, who has been at the forefront of CGM's European strategy and operations since 2011, joins CGM USA as COO. Most recently, Broström served as the company's country manager for Sweden. The executives' ages were not provided. … Chicago-based Valence Health, which helps healthcare providers with clinical integration, population health and financial risk management, named two new executives to its team: Bruce Brandes as executive VP for growth and innovation and David Kirshner as VP of corporate and business development. Brandes, 46, joined Valence on July 8 from digital health company AirStrip, where he was executive VP and chief strategy officer. In his new role, he will be opening an office for Valence in Nashville and will be in charge of initiatives to drive the company's growth. Kirshner, 55, joined Valence on June 24. He most recently was a director with Warbird Consulting Partners and previously was VP, CFO and treasurer at Boston Children's Hospital. … Healthcare information technology company Socrates Analytics hired Jim Evans as its first CEO. Evans is a former executive at McKesson Health Solutions, most recently its VP of network and financial management in Malvern, Pa. Socrates Analytics, launched last October with funding from Cleveland-based University Hospitals Case Medical Center, designs software that helps hospitals and physicians collect and analyze hospital billing, administrative and operating room data.

Laser Spine Institute, which operates five ambulatory surgery centers, promoted COO Dotty Bollinger to president, a new position at the company. Bollinger, 48, joined the Tampa, Fla.-based company in 2008 as VP of quality and compliance and in 2011 became COO.

Maxwell Kagan was hired as CFO for Englewood, Colo.-based Centura Health Physician Group. Kagan, 36, comes to Centura from Albuquerque, N.M.-based Presbyterian Healthcare Services, where he worked for eight years, most recently as CFO for its medical group. At Centura, he succeeds David Hesselink. … Hospital medicine and critical-care company Cogent Healthcare named Dean Weiland president and CEO. Weiland, whose age was not provided, joins the Brentwood, Tenn.-based company, formerly known as Cogent HMG, from dialysis company Renal Advantage, where he was COO and a co-founder. A week earlier, Cogent named executive chairman Randy Thurman CEO after John Donahue stepped down from the position.

Raymond Thompson was named VP of Life Care Centers of America's Federal Way, Wash.-based Northwest Division. Thompson, 40, was VP for one region of the division before he was chosen to succeed interim VP Todd Fletcher in overseeing 29 skilled-nursing, rehabilitation and Alzheimer's centers in Washington, Oregon and Idaho.

Jack Cumming, Hologic's former CEO, has once again been named president and CEO of the Bedford, Mass., developer, manufacturer and supplier of diagnostic and medical imaging products for women's health. Cumming, 68, replaces Robert Cascella, 58, who is leaving Hologic for personal reasons but will continue to serve as an adviser to the company through the end of November. Cumming was CEO in 2001-09, as well as chairman in 2002-07 and 2008-11. The company said one of Cumming's tasks will be to review the integration of Gen-Probe, a maker of clinical diagnostic, blood screening, transplant and research products acquired for nearly $3.8 billion in July 2012.

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