Welcome to this week's Chutes & Ladders, our roundup of hirings, firings and retirings throughout the industry. Please submit the good news—or the bad—from your shop, and we will feature it here at the end of each week.
Texas Children’s Hospital
Three women leaders have been hired as division chiefs at Texas Children’s Hospital, a nonprofit healthcare organization.
Katy Ostermaier, M.D., will become division chief of development behavioral pediatrics, Debra Palazzi, M.D., has been named chief of infectious disease in a new role for the hospital and Katri Typpo, M.D., is set to be chief of critical care medicine.
Ostermaier has served as director of the Down Syndrome Clinic at Texas Children’s since 2009 and was promoted to professor of pediatrics at the Baylor College of Medicine earlier this year. Palazzi participates in a collaborative of more than 30 children’s hospitals that identifies best practices for antimicrobials use in children. Typpo worked as chief of pediatric critical care and medical director of pediatric cardiac ICU at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson.
Walgreens
Another executive is leaving Walgreens Boots Alliance in the latest retail giant’s shakeup. Chief legal officer Danielle Gray is stepping down in January.
She joined the company in September 2021 having previously worked for Blue Cross North Carolina, the U.S. Department of Justice and the White House in several roles. Matthew D’Ambrosio, senior vice president and global chief compliance and ethics officer, has been named as her replacement in the interim, according to reports.
Walgreens previously hired Neal Sample as executive vice president and chief information officer, and replaced former CEO Roz Brewer with Express Scripts CEO Tim Wentworth, among just a few arrivals and departures. Chief Marketing Officer Linh Peters and Chief Medical Officer Kevin Ban reportedly left the company in November during a round of layoffs, said Retail Dive.
GAO
The Government Accountability Office has selected five new members to the Health Information Technology Advisory Committee.
The committee now includes Lee Fleisher, M.D., the Emeritus professor of anesthesiology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine; Katrina Parrish, M.D., physician director of clinical informatics at Humana; Randa Perkins, M.D., chief medical information officer and senior director for clinical informatics at the Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute in Tampa, Florida; Rochelle Prosser, founder of Orchid Healthcare Solutions; and Mark Sendak, M.D., a population and health data science lead at the Duke Institute for Health Information.
Each member is appointed for a three-year term and may be reappointed in three-year intervals.
> Homebase Medical, a provider group that delivers palliative care, chronic disease management, care transition management and at-home personal health assessments, has announced Sara Crate as CEO. Homebase Medical was acquired in 2022, then known as The Residentialist Group, by SCAN Group, a nonprofit organization focused on chronic illness and inequities.
> Holy Name Medical Center, a nonprofit healthcare facility in New Jersey, has selected Cynthia Ziegler as its vice president of revenue cycle management.
> Central Health, a public hospital district serving Austin, Texas, has named Patrick Lee, M.D., as president and CEO.
> The Joint Commission Enterprise, one of the nation’s oldest accrediting bodies to improve healthcare, has named Leslie Krohn as executive vice president and chief brand and communications officer and Jason Miles as vice president and U.S. commercial officer.
> Confluence Health, a healthcare system in the state of Washington, has named James Murray, M.D., as chief medical officer after serving as interim CMO since July.
> University of Alabama at Birmingham Health System has tapped Cheri Canon, M.D., as president of the UAB Health Services Foundation and chief physician executive, formally transitioning into the role when current president Tony Jones retires May 1.
> Mount Carmel Health System, a member of Trinity Health in central Ohio, has announced CEO Lorraine Lutton will retire in April.
> American Health Information Management Association, a nonprofit, has named HCA Florida Ocala Hospital chief medical officer Kevin Klauer as CEO, replacing interim CEO Amy Mosser.
> Allina Health, a nonprofit healthcare system throughout Minnesota and Wisconsin, has named Whitney Johnson as president of Owatonna Hospital and Faribault Medical Center, effective Jan. 8.
> Gadsden Regional Medical Center, a hospital in Alabama, has hired Mark Dooley as CEO, effective Jan. 29.
> Honor, a home care network for older adults, has announced Kim Atkinson as chief communications officer.
> Providence Health Plan, an insurer located in Portland, Oregon, has promoted Regena Frieden to chief administrative officer, named Brad Garrigues as chief growth officer in a new role and appointed Timshel Tarbet as chief healthcare experience and equity officer.
> University of Rochester Medical Center has appointed David Linehan as CEO, dean of the School of Medicine and Dentistry and senior vice president for health sciences.
> Vanderbilt University Medical Center has named Lee Ann Lisa as president of Vanderbilt University Hospital. She has been serving as interim president and chief operating officer.
> Haywood Regional Medical Center, a Duke University Lifepoint Hospital, has hired Amanda Pruitt Motley as its new chief financial officer.
> TriStar StoneCrest Medical Center, a hospital in Smyma, Tennessee, has announced Steve Gray as chief financial officer.
> Essentia Health, a health system in Minnesota, Wisconsin and North Dakota, has announced Gratia Pitcher, M.D., as chief medical officer after previously serving in the role during the interim since October.
> Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare, a health system in Memphis, Tennessee, has named Tina Haskins Smith as its new senior vice president and chief information officer.
> Meharry Medical College, a historically Black college and university, recently named an advisory board for the nation’s first school of global health. It includes Regina Benjamin, M.D., the U.S. Surgeon General from 2009 to 2013; Donna Christensen, M.D., a former U.S. House of Representative; Kim Godwin, president of ABC News; Michelle Gourdine, M.D., senior vice president of CVS Health and chief medical officer of CVS Caremark; Garth Graham, M.D., director and global health of healthcare and public health for Google and YouTube; and David Satcher, a former U.S. surgeon general, among others.
> St. Dominic Hospital in Jackson, Mississippi has hired Dave Estorge as chief operating officer, according to his LinkedIn page.
> SGMC Health, a four-hospital health system in Georgia and Florida, has hired Jessica Busque as director of medical staff services, Julie Blodgett as director of physician recruitment and Cherise Giddens as vice president and chief nursing officer.
> UF Health St. Johns, a regional campus for UF Health, has named Lydia Hendrix as chief operating officer.
> Silverado, a provider of hospice and palliative care, has tapped Dawn Wolda as national vice president of sales.
> Henry Schein, a provider of health care solutions to office-based dental and medical practitioners, has appointed Carole Faig as an independent director to the board of directors.