Two top Beaumont executives resign, unrelated layoffs continue

Two top Beaumont Health executives have resigned and employee layoffs continue in unrelated but ongoing restructuring of Southeast Michigan's largest hospital system with eight hospitals and $4.4 billion in revenue, Crain's has learned

Christine Stesney-Ridenour, who has been president over the Taylor, Trenton and Wayne hospital campuses since January, is stepping down Aug. 14 after spending her 35-year career at Beaumont.

Beaumont officials say she was asked to stay but informed management she was "going in another direction."

Stesney-Ridenour, who was unavailable for comment, started out as a secretary and administrative assistant before receiving a business degree at Walsh College in 1989. She then held multiple administrative positions at Beaumont Grosse Pointe hospital before becoming president of Beaumont Trenton Hospital in 2016.

She is currently president of the Midwest chapter of the American College of Healthcare Executives.

Lee Ann Odom, who is president of shared services and also leader of Beaumont's mental health expansion plans, will assume Taylor, Trenton and Wayne hospital responsibilities on an interim basis, a Beaumont spokesman said.

Chris Harrison, senior vice president of financial operations and corporate finance, also has resigned after 20 months with Beaumont. He has commuted from Brentwood, Tenn., since he was hired in December 2017 and wants to be closer to his family, Beaumont said. He previously worked in the for-profit healthcare industry with HCA Inc. and Lifepoint Health.

Sources familiar with Beaumont's ongoing restructuring told Crain's that several other lower-level Beaumont managers have resigned in the ongoing overhaul, which began in January and is continuing.

Crain's reported at least 175 employees have been given pink slips over the past several months. But Beaumont officials said the system also is hiring more people this year than in 2018. Hirings are up by 3 percent, or 126 workers, this year compared with hirings during the same six-month period last year.

Over the past 18 months, Ascension Health and Detroit Medical Center have also seen large-scale layoffs, with Ascension cutting more than 500 workers from its eight hospitals in Michigan and DMC reducing staff by more than 450 in at least two rounds of layoffs.

In a previous interview, Carolyn Wilson, R.N., Beaumont's COO and executive vice president, told Crain's the restructuring plans dated back to earlier in 2018 when the health system began crafting a new three-year strategic plan that would begin in 2019.

Wilson said it heavily focuses on expanding outpatient care services as patients are seeking more convenient care settings and payers are directing reimbursement incentives toward lower-cost facilities.

"2 top Beaumont executives resign, unrelated layoffs continue" originally appeared in Crain's Detroit Business.