After four years as CEO of Detroit Medical Center, Joe Mullany has been replaced for unspecified reasons by Tony Tedeschi, M.D., former CEO of Tenet Healthcare's four-hospital Chicago market. Tenet is the parent company of DMC.
Mullany, who DMC said is pursuing other opportunities, was hired as president in 2012 by then-CEO Mike Duggan, who was looking for a replacement to succeed him if he was elected mayor of Detroit. Duggan was elected in November 2013.
"We are thankful to Joe for his significant contributions to DMC and the metro Detroit community, and wish him all the best in his future endeavors," Eric Evans, Tenet's president of hospital operations, said in a statement.
Sources tell Crain's that Tenet is in the process of restructuring its national hospital operations and the move to replace Mullany is seen as an effort to flatten and streamline corporate operations. Mullany also was part of Vanguard Health Systems, which acquired DMC in 2011 and was later sold in 2013 to Dallas-based Tenet.
Mullany, who is a 2016 Crain's Newsmaker of the Year, was unavailable for comment Tuesday afternoon.
In the statement, Tenet said Tedeschi most recently served as CEO of its four-hospital Chicago market and served as a top executive at Weiss Memorial Hospital, a 236-bed urban hospital with 42 specialties and more than 800 employees. Before joining Tenet, he was COO of publicly owned Cook County Health & Hospitals System in Chicago.
"Tony's more than 20 years of operational and clinical experience uniquely positions him to lead DMC in its next chapter; building upon its successes while deepening its integration with the city and medical community at large," Evans said. "I am confident that Tony's leadership will greatly complement the incredible work being achieved here, while elevating the delivery of safe, high quality care and exceptional service provided to our patients."
Tedeschi earned a medical degree from the University of Illinois Chicago, a master's degree in business administration from Northwestern University and a master's degree in public health from the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. He received his bachelor's degree at Knox College in Galesburg, Ill.
"I look forward to being a part of DMC, a world-class health system dedicated to innovating clinical care, training the next generation of health care professionals and helping patients recover faster and stay healthier longer," Tedeschi in a statement. "DMC is woven into the fabric of this community and plays an important role in the overall wellbeing of the city. Together, we will advance the delivery of safe, high quality care and pave the way for its next 100 years."
In November, DMC announced that it had been cleared by the CMS after an inspection found a variety of problems at DMC's downtown sterile-processing department that serves four hospitals: Detroit Receiving, Harper University, Hutzel Women's and Children's hospitals.
The Detroit News broke the story after obtaining and reviewing more than 200 pages of internal documents showing that, for more than a decade, DMC surgeons voiced concerns to hospital administrators about surgical instruments that were broken, dirty or simply missing.
The DMC consists of nine hospitals, with more than 2,000 beds, in metropolitan Detroit and southeastern Michigan. It has changed hands twice in recent years.
In 2010, the Nashville-based Vanguard Health Systems acquired the DMC. The shift from a not-for-profit to a for-profit system later proved to be healthy for Detroit's finances. The system cut its operating losses by 90%, or $120 million, during its first two years under Vanguard and increased its profitability.
"Joe Mullany replaced as CEO of Detroit Medical Center" originally appeared in Crain's Detroit Business.
