Loyola Medicine names new CEO

A healthcare administrator from a large academic institution in Georgia has been named the new chief executive at Maywood-based Loyola Medicine.

Shawn Vincent, 49, chief operating officer at Augusta (Ga.) University Health with experience in both for-profit and not-for-profit healthcare, will take over the roles of president and CEO on Nov. 5, Loyola announced. He will succeed the interim CEO, Roger Spoelman, who has been serving in the job since April, when CEO Larry Goldberg departed to take a senior position at Phoenix-based Banner Health.

Vincent arrives in the wake of Loyola's March acquisition for $270 million of MacNeal Hospital, a 368-bed community hospital in Berwyn. That addition brought the total bed count in the Loyola system to 1,168. Loyola has been owned since 2011 by Trinity Health, a sprawling network of 93 hospitals in 22 states headquartered in Livonia, Mich.

In an interview, Spoelman, who is 65, said he was not a candidate for the permanent CEO post at Loyola. He carries the title of senior vice president at Trinity and has filled similar caretaker roles at other hospitals within the network in recent years.

Spoelman said that a search committee assembled from the board of directors at Loyola was impressed by Vincent's recent experience at Augusta University, which owns a big children's care center, a neonatal intensive-care facility, and some 80 outpatient practice sites. The trauma center functions as a regional hub serving 13 surrounding counties.

"The search committee wanted someone who understood the complexity and uniqueness of an academic medical center," Spoelman said. "One reason he rose to the top of the candidate pool was because of his academic experience."

Vincent has also served in management roles at Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA Healthcare, a for-profit institution, and Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. He has a bachelor's degree in business administration and healthcare management from Appalachian State University in Boone, N.C., and an MBA from the University of Georgia. He also served in the U.S. Marine Corps.

Kenneth Kaufman, the chairman of Kaufman Hall & Associates in Skokie, a healthcare consulting firm, sees a certain logic in the choice of Vincent. "Almost every COO is looking for a CEO job. This is a pretty classic move forward in his career," he said. "And hospitals are often looking for top executives in their late 40s and early 50s—that's a sort of sweet spot."

Kaufman and others don't expect Vincent to become embroiled in any more significant acquisitions soon. The marketplace has undergone considerable consolidation already over the past decade. "I don't have a window into whether Trinity wants to do any more deals, but it seems to me that there isn't much left to buy around Chicago," Kaufman said. "Chicago is a market with five academic medical centers, and so Loyola faces stern competition here. A new CEO will have to be concerned with controlling expenses among other things."

"Loyola Medicine names new CEO" originally appeared in Crain's Chicago Business.