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.
MDLive
Jonathan Salon has been promoted to the new role of president at MDLive, the virtual care giant announced Thursday.
Salon holds 25 years of operations, finance, corporate development and other business function experience.
He joined MDLive in 2020 as its chief commercial officer, a position that saw him scaling the company’s commercial operations and leading its integration with Cigna’s Evernorth following last year’s acquisition. Prior to that, Salon was a managing director at private equity firm Bedford Funding—which had invested in MDLive back in 2015.
Salon will now be reporting to Evernorth Senior Vice President of Care Delivery Matthew Bennett. The new position will task him with further expanding MDLive’s virtual care capabilities and collaborating on new offerings for Evernorth’s customers.
Providence
Sara Vaezy has been named as the new chief digital officer and executive vice president at Providence, the system announced this week.
She previously served as the nonprofit’s chief of digital and growth strategy.
In that role, she worked to build and maintain organizational relationships with digital and innovation teams, venture capital firms, industry analysts and other companies while designing the health system’s strategies for digital innovation and commercialization.
In a statement, Vaezy said she is excited to build upon Providence’s established digital platform and commercialized solutions.
Her promotion comes less than a month after the departure of Aaron Martin, an Amazon vet who spent eight years in the chief digital officer role before returning to the tech giant.
His tenure at the health system saw the creation and spinoff of digital health companies such as DexCare and Xealth via Providence Health’s Digital Innovation Group.
Lifespan
Timothy Babineau, M.D., will be stepping down from his role as president and CEO of Rhode Island-based Lifespan on May 31, according to an announcement from the system’s board of directors.
He’s led the system for nearly a decade, having prior to that served as the president of its Rhode Island Hospital, Hasbro Children’s Hospital and The Miriam Hospital.
His tenure saw the health system grow its total assets from $2.4 billion in 2012 to $2.9 billion in 2022 and its workforce increased 16% during the same period. The system also credits Babineau with building Lifespan Physician Group—the largest multi-specialty physician practice in Rhode Island with almost 1,300 employees—expanding Lifespan's ambulatory care business and forging alliances with the nearby Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Boston Children’s Hospital, among other initiatives.
Babineau has agreed to stay on as a consultant through the end of September. Lifespan’s board said it will appoint an interim leader “in the coming weeks” and plans to conduct a national search for Babineau’s successor.
Sinai Chicago
Ngozi Ezike, M.D., was unveiled as the new CEO and president of Sinai Chicago, the city’s largest private safety-net health system.
Ezike, a board-certified internist and pediatrician, recently departed her prior position as director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, a role she held since 2019.
Before leading the state agency through a pandemic, she had spent 15 years working for Cook County Health, a role that saw her serve as medical director of its Juvenile Temporary Detention Center and the Austin Health Center.
Ezike comes to the nonprofit system following a national search to replace 15-year leader Karen Teitelbaum, who announced plans to step down last September. Ezike will be taking on the new role starting June 13.
> Centene board member Leslie Norwalk, formerly the administrator of CMS, resigned citing frustrations with its governance process. She had been appointed just over three months ago.
> Mass General Brigham named William Curry, M.D., as chief medical officer of Massachusetts General Hospital as well as the Massachusetts General Physicians Organization.
> Truepill, a digital telehealth, at-home testing and prescription fulfillment platform, unveiled Ana Schrank as its new chief financial officer.
> Augusta University Health System CEO Katrina Keefer will be leaving the system in July.
> Allina Health has promoted Sara Criger as the lead of its acute care services, a role that will see her serve as senior vice president of Allina Health Operations. Elsewhere, the system’s Abbott Northwestern Hospital named David Joos as its new president.
> UW Medicine CEO Paul Ramsey, M.D., reportedly announced his summer retirement to faculty and staff in an internal email. Chief Medical Officer Tim Dellit, M.D., is reportedly slated to fill in as interim CEO.
> Cone Health’s Alamance Regional Medical Center in North Carolina will see Karen Resh step up as chief nursing officer and vice president of patient care services.
> AmeriHealth Caritas announced Adrian Mebane as executive vice president and chief risk officer and Topper Ray as executive vice president of public affairs.
> NewYork-Presbyterian named Anne Dinneen as senior vice president and chief investment officer, effective May 2.
> Envision Healthcare Corporation, a national medical group, brought Charles McRae onto its leadership team as service line executive for the anesthesia service line.
> Cedars-Sinai has tapped Craig Kwiatkowski as senior vice president of enterprise information services and chief information officer.
> Memora Health appointed Omar Nagji as chief commercial officer and Jamie Colbert, M.D., as senior vice president of care delivery.
> HCA Florida Northside Hospital announced Amrit Dhillon as chief operating officer.
> Graphite Health, a healthcare interoperability company, unveiled Ted Gaubert as its new chief technology officer.
> Virgin Pulse, a digital health and wellbeing company, added Steve Halleen as vice president of consultant relations as well as promoted Jeff Yoshimura to executive vice president of product and innovation and Rebecca Murray as vice president of its client solutions group.
> Tenet Healthcare’s MetroWest Medical Center will be losing its CEO Ava Collins, according to reports.
> LewisGale Regional Health System, in Virginia, has promoted Alan Fabian to the system’s market president and the CEO of LewisGale Medical Center.
> Nest Collaborative, a virtual lactation consultation platform, tapped Judith Nowlin as CEO. Company founder Amanda Gorman will be sticking around as chief clinical officer.
> Butterfly Network, maker of a handheld ultrasound device, named Heather Getz as executive vice president and chief financial officer.
> The PhRMA Foundation appointed Emily Ortman to the new role of head of communications.
> CalvertHealth CEO Dean Teague announced plans to retire from the Maryland system in 2023.
> eHealth Technologies, a medical record data company, promoted Jeff Frier to vice president of operations and appointed Sean Ways as vice president of engineering.
> Mercy Health tapped Jason Asic as president of its Kings Mills Hospital.
> The American Telemedicine Association announced five new directors to its board: Meta’s Mujadala Abdul-Majid; Ascension’s Tania Elliott, M.D.; ConcertoCare’s Julian Harris, M.D.; Foley & Lardner’s Nathaniel Lacktman; and Babylon’s Darshak Sanghavi, M.D.