Richard Cordova retiring from Children's Hospital of Los Angeles, and other news makers

Richard Cordova plans to retire as president and CEO of Children's Hospital Los Angeles, a teaching hospital affiliated with the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine. No retirement date has been set.

Cordova, 65, joined the hospital in 2005 as president and COO and assumed the role of CEO a year later. He has been named to Modern Healthcare's list of the Top 25 Minority Executives as well as the 100 Most Influential People in Healthcare.

Before joining Children's, Cordova worked in executive and administrative roles for several prominent healthcare providers in California, including Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and Hospitals and San Francisco General Hospital.

Dr. Nabil El Sanadi has been named president and CEO of the North Broward Hospital District, Fort Lauderdale, Fla., which operates as Broward Health. He replaces Frank Nask.

El Sanadi has been chief of emergency medicine for Broward Health and a practicing emergency medicine physician at Broward Health Medical Center. He is chairman of the Florida Board of Medicine and serves as the EMS medical director for several municipalities. He previously served as chief of emergency medicine at University Hospitals of Cleveland.

Dr. Bechara Choucair, Chicago's public health commissioner since 2009, will join Trinity Health to lead the Livonia, Mich.-based system's safety-net and community-benefit programs, effective at the end of December.

Choucair, 41, will become Trinity's senior VP for safety-net transformation and community benefit, a new position at the system. Dr. Julie Morita, chief medical officer at the Chicago Department of Public Health, will replace him as commissioner.

Before his commissioner's role, Choucair was vice chairman for community medicine at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine.

Chad Grant has been named president and CEO of McLaren Oakland, which encompasses a hospital in downtown Pontiac, Mich. and eight satellite facilities throughout northern Oakland County, Mich. He replaces Clarence Sevillian, who was promoted to president and CEO of McLaren Health Care Corp.'s Bay Region serving northeast Michigan.

Grant, 40, previously was COO at Children's Hospital of Michigan in Detroit, part of Detroit Medical Center. Grant began his career in healthcare at DMC in 1995, going on to serve as administrative director of ancillary services as well as VP. In 2011, Grant was named one of Detroit's “40 Under 40” by Crain's Detroit Business, a sister publication of Modern Healthcare.

Paul Kusserow has been named president and CEO at Amedisys, a Baton Rouge, La.-based home-health and hospice provider.

He takes over for Ronald LaBorde, who was serving as president and interim CEO. Bill Borne, the former chairman and CEO, stepped down in February as a part of a board decision, and now serves as chairman emeritus.

Kusserow, 53, most recently was vice chairman of Alignment Healthcare, which provides population-health management services. He has also served as senior VP, chief strategy, innovations and corporate development officer for health insurer Humana, and held positions with several venture funds and investment firms, including Ziegler HealthVest Fund and San Ysidro Capital Partners.