Gwen MacKenzie, Ascension's market executive in Michigan will leave her role effective April 30.
MacKenzie was chosen for the job in 2014 by Ascension Healthcare CEO Patricia Maryland, and MacKenzie said she promised to remain in the role for three to four years.
"Having fulfilled that commitment to Pat, I have been privileged to be part of Ascension and leave with best wishes for success," MacKenzie said, "With the rapid cycle transformation we are experiencing in healthcare, the skill sets of future top leaders will likely be different as we innovate around population health and consumer expectations."
Dr. Joseph Cacchione will replace MacKenzie in an interim basis while keeping his current role as president of Ascension Medical Group.
MacKenzie is credited with having recruited 136 new providers, including 100 physicians and having opened a 60,000-square-foot, $17.5 million health center campus during her tenure. Ascension Michigan is also one of the markets that underwent a rebranding campaign to align with the national Ascension identity.
"I recruited Gwen to lead a complex market undergoing transformation to population health faster than many of our markets in Ascension," Maryland said in a statement.
MacKenzie led Ascension Michigan as it formed a statewide, physician-led clinically integrated network with Trinity Health. Last year the network added round-the-clock virtual care services and now covers 107,000 lives.
The network also led to a marketwide governance and administrative structure and created marketwide clinical councils aims at standardizing clinical best practices and integrating care models.
But during MacKenzie's tenure, Ascension Michigan also experienced recent layoffs at its 14 hospitals. About 500 employees, including managers, nurses and other staff, have lost their jobs. Ascension, the largest Catholic health system in the country, is in the middle of a major restructuring that includes reshuffling its executives, creating new staffing models and compensation standards, and downsizing its hospital footprint while adding to its outpatient and telehealth network, and bolstering its subsidiaries.
Maryland expressed confidence that Cacchione could take on the responsibility.
"(He) has led (the medical group) on its transformation journey as a high-performing medical group that unites a community of providers through a shared purpose that advances our Mission," Maryland said.
Cacchione has held leadership positions at the Cleveland Clinic and at St. Vincent Health System in Erie, Pa.
