Johns Hopkins Health names Duke's Sowers as next president

Johns Hopkins Health System, Baltimore, named Duke University Hospital President Kevin Sowers as its own president. Sowers replaces Ronald Peterson, who announced in June that he planned to retire at year-end.

Sowers, who has been at Duke for 32 years and was president of the hospital for eight, also will serve as executive vice president of Johns Hopkins Medicine. He will start at the organization on Feb. 1, becoming the second president ever of the system.

Prior to his current position at Duke, Sowers was chief operating officer for Duke University Hospital, and had experience in other administrative positions. Sowers began his career with Duke University Medical Center Hospital in 1985 as a staff nurse in oncology.

Sowers was paid $725,000 in reportable and other income by Duke in the year ended June 30, 2016, while Peterson was paid $2.6 million in reportable and other income from Johns Hopkins a year earlier, according to the respective Internal Revenue Service Form 990s.

Sowers is inheriting an organization on less than stellar financial footing, with the system recording a drop in net operating income of 26% in its first fiscal quarter compared with the year-earlier period, which ended Sept. 30. Johns Hopkins reported net operating income of $33.7 million in that period based on operating revenue of $1.57 billion, which rose 3.8% from $1.51 billion in 2016. Expenses in that period rose 4.5% to $1.54 billion from $1.47 billion a year earlier.

Similarly, in the year ended June 30, Johns Hopkins Health System operating income fell 36.9% to $153.2 million.

Hopkins officials were not immediately available for comment.

An edited version of this story can also be found in Modern Healthcare's Dec. 18 print edition.