Laura Kaiser named President and CEO of SSM Health and other newsmakers

Laura Kaiser has been named president and CEO of SSM Health, effective May 1. She will succeed William Thompson, who is retiring after 37 years with St. Louis-based SSM, the past six years as chief executive.

Kaiser, 56, comes to SSM from Salt Lake City-based Intermountain Healthcare, where she was executive vice president and COO. Before joining Intermountain, she spent 15 years at Ascension Health, serving in a number of leadership roles, including ministry market leader for the Gulf Coast/Florida region for Ascension and as president and CEO at Sacred Heart Health System in Pensacola, Fla.

Dr. Julie Ann Freischlag has been named CEO of Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, Winston-Salem, N.C., effective May 1. She replaces Dr. John McConnell, who will become executive director of Wake Forest Healthcare Ventures, a new company at Wake Forest that will develop services focused on analytics and digital health.

Freischlag, 62, is currently vice chancellor for human health sciences and dean of the University of California at Davis School of Medicine. In that role, Freischlag directs UC Davis' academic, research and clinical programs, which include an acute-care hospital and a multispecialty medical group with 1,000 physicians.

Leo Correa has been named CEO of St. Catherine Healthcare in East Chicago, Ind. He replaces Jo Ann Birdzell, who retired after serving as CEO for the past 19 years.

Correa most recently was associate VP of clinical affairs at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. Previously he was an administrator of hematology/ oncology and cell therapy at Rush. He also held executive leadership positions at University of Chicago Medicine and Northwestern University.

Dr. Nancy Hammond has been promoted to VP and chief medical officer of St. Agnes Healthcare, an Ascension affiliate based in Baltimore. She replaces, Dr. Adrian Long, who retired. Hammond, 61, joined St. Agnes in 2005 and served as chair of the obstetrics and gynecology department. Previously she was a practicing OB-GYN physician.

Holly Elliott has been named the first vice president of women's and children's services at HCA Gulf Coast Division, Houston. In the new role, she'll work with the CEO of the south Texas healthcare network and the CEO of the Woman's Hospital of Texas. Elliott, 35, previously was VP and chief operations officer at Children's Memorial Hermann Hospital, Houston.

Brad Wilson, will retire later this year as president and CEO of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina. He has served in the roles since 2010. He will also leave his post as chairman of the plan's independent foundation.

Wilson, 63, joined the health plan in 1996. Before joining the Blues, Wilson was a general counsel to then-North Carolina Gov. Jim Hunt. He's also a former chairman of the University of North Carolina Board of Governors.