Verity Health System, the hospital group formerly known as the Daughters of Charity Health System, has hired Andrei Soran as its COO and president.
Soran previously served as COO and executive VP at Detroit Medical Center, according to a news release. He also served as president of Huron Valley-Sinai Hospital, DMC Surgery Hospital and CEO of Framingham, Mass.-based MetroWest Medical Center.
Soran comes aboard as Verity attempts to improve its operating performance.
“We are delighted to have someone with Andrei's significant leadership experience join us in revitalizing our hospital facilities in northern and southern California,” Mitchell Creem, Verity's CEO, said in a statement. “He brings a steadfast commitment to building excellence in clinical programs, enhancing quality and patient service.”
Verity is a six-facility healthcare system based in Redwood City, Calif. Last year, Daughters was purchased by BlueMountain Capital Management and renamed. BlueMountain pledged up to $260 million to the system. Integrity Healthcare, a newly created entity, is now managing it.
Verity is made up of St. Francis Medical Center in Lynwood, St. Vincent Medical Center in Los Angeles, O'Connor Hospital in San Jose, St. Louise Regional Hospital in Gilroy, and Seton Medical Center and Seton Coastside in Daly City.
The system's leadership announced in an earnings call last month a three-prong improvement plan to reverse the system's fortunes. Stephen Forney, Verity's CFO, said on the call that the system had found a number of revenue-cycle management, supply-chain and productivity initiatives to improve financial results.
Daughters was bought by Blue Mountain after several other failed deals, including an attempted acquisition by Prime Healthcare Services. That deal was called off in early 2015 after the attorney general in California required Prime to meet 300 conditions. Ascension Health's attempt ended in January 2014.
For the six months ended December 31, 2015, Verity reported an operating loss of $70.7 million. In the same period of the prior year, the system reported an operating loss of $35.2 million. The operating performance was impacted by Verity's payer mix, reimbursement rate increases that were lower than usual and by lower volumes, the system said in the financial report.
