Tenet names Eric Evans president of hospital operations and other news makers

Eric Evans has been named president of hospital operations at Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare Corp. He takes over for Britt Reynolds, who took a job outside the organization.

Evans, 38, will have oversight of 84 acute-care hospitals, more than 170 hospital-affiliated outpatient facilities and more than 700 physician practices. He joined Tenet in 2004, and most recently served as CEO of Tenet's Texas region.

Bill Kottmann has been promoted to president and CEO of Edward Hospital, Naperville, Ill., effective July 1. He will report to Edward-Elmhurst Health CEO Pam Davis.

Kottmann, 61, serves as system VP of physician and ambulatory network development, and is also president of Edward-Elmhurst's joint-venture division. He joined Edward Hospital in 1991 as VP of human resources before being named VP of operations in 1993. He was appointed president of the joint-venture division at Edward Hospital in 2005, a role that was expanded to the systemwide level in 2013.

Lisa Rowen has been named system chief nurse executive at the University of Maryland Medical System in Baltimore.

Rowen, 58, has been senior VP for patient-care services and chief nursing officer at the University of Maryland Medical Center since 2007. Last year, she was also named CNO for the medical center's Midtown campus. Rowen will continue to serve in those roles. She oversees more than 5,000 nurses, including advanced-practice nurses and other caregivers.

Richard Davidson, who served as president of the American Hospital Association for 16 years, and was a long-time champion of hospital quality measurement, died last week at age 79.

Davidson was the second longest-serving president in the trade group's 118-year history. From 1991 to 2007, he led national efforts to publicize hospital quality information, and engage community care networks to improve patient care. The effort is considered the predecessor to accountable care organizations.

“Dick was an innovative and visionary leader, a consensus builder, and a friend and mentor to many throughout our field,” current AHA President and CEO Rick Pollack said in a statement.

Davidson helped to found the Hospital Quality Alliance, a public/private partnership that was instrumental in creating the Hospital Compare website.

In a 2012 profile of Davidson upon his induction into the Health Care Hall of Fame, sponsored by Modern Healthcare, Davidson recalled that during an initial meeting with officials to discuss ways to improve healthcare transparency, lawmakers, members of the Joint Commission and other leaders realized, primarily through Davidson's prompting, that they were all trying to do the same thing. By the end of that meeting, the group had a shared vision that led to the creation of the alliance in 2002. The group includes the AHA, the American Medical Association and the Joint Commission, among others.

Another of Davidson's accomplishments was the AHA's Institute for Diversity in Health Management, which was a direct reflection of his core values.