Temple University Health System CEO Dr. Larry Kaiser will step down at the end of the year, capping an eight-year tenure at the institution.
The academic health system's chief restructuring officer Stuart McLean will become the acting CEO on Sept. 30 as Kaiser focuses on the transition, Temple announced Tuesday. Emeritus Dean John Daly will replace Kaiser at the university's medical school as the interim dean of the Lewis Katz School of Medicine.
Kaiser said the health system's restructuring is progressing and it is the right time to step down.
"It is difficult to leave a place where I have invested so much of my passion, energy and enthusiasm, but I think it is important for Temple to allow new leadership to step in and guide the restructured enterprise into its next chapter," he said in prepared remarks.
Part of that restructuring includes the sale of Temple's Fox Chase Cancer Center to Thomas Jefferson University. Thomas Jefferson also plans to buy Temple's interest in Health Partners Plan.
Jefferson and Temple were also among four academic healthcare organizations that aim to purchase bankrupt St. Christopher's Hospital from Children from American Academic Health System. The hospital was included in a recent Chapter 11 bankruptcy case, along with Hahnemann University Hospital, by an AAHS subsidiary.
The safety-net health system for North Philadelphia operates in one of the most consolidated healthcare markets in the country, executives said. Under Kaiser's tenure, the system acquired the Fox Chase Cancer Center, added to its ambulatory care network and expanded its medical school.
Temple reported $17.2 million of operating income on revenue of $1.85 billion in 2018, up from $469,000 of operating income on $1.75 billion of revenue in 2017. Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries and self-pay patients made up nearly two-thirds of the health systems patient mix in 2018.
Kaiser came to Temple in 2011 from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, where he was president.
