The revolving door at Memorial Hermann Health System keeps on spinning.
In the wake of Benjamin Chu’s sudden departure from Houston’s largest nonprofit healthcare system in June after a year on the job, five more executives have announced plans to leave.
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CFO Dennis Laraway will take over as CFO of Banner Health in Phoenix, Arizona, in September, and Healthcare Finance reported that Christopher Lloyd, CEO of the system's physician network MHMD, Craig Cordola, a senior vice president and president of the west region, and Jim Garman, head of human resources, are also leaving the system.
In addition, The Houston Chronicle reported that the system is also losing Keith Alexander, president of the system’s north region, as well as Nishant "Shaun" Anand, M.D., physician-in-chief of MHMD, who will take over as chief medical officer of Adventist Health System in Florida.
Cordola will become senior vice president of St. Louis-based Ascension Healthcare and ministry market executive of Ascension Texas, effective September 1, according to the Houston Business Journal.
No information is available on the plans of Garman and Alexander. In a statement to publications, new Memorial Hermann CEO Charles "Chuck" Stokes praised the departing leaders and said he wished them the best. "Career moves by top leaders to other signature health systems speak volumes about the caliber of talent we have at Memorial Hermann," he said.
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Memorial Hermann isn’t the only Texas Medical Center member institution that has suffered high-level leader departures recently. Michael Covert, CEO of CHI St. Luke’s Health in Houston, a member of the Catholic Health Initiatives system, has resigned effective Aug. 31. Ronald A. DePinho, M.D., president of The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, left in March. And Robert C. Robbins, M.D., CEO of Texas Medical Center, resigned in April to become president of the University of Arizona.
And Texas isn’t the only state to experience the departures of senior executives. CEO turnover is rampant across the nation.
A recent report found the turnover rate for healthcare CEOs in 2016 was 18%, among the highest in the past 20 years. In general, the biggest influencers for this trend are ongoing consolidations of organizations, the move toward new models of care and retirements, according to the American College of Healthcare Executives.
In recent weeks, McCready Health in Maryland announced that Kathleen Harrison will succeed Joy Strand, and the Pacific Business News reported that Mary Ann Barnes will retire as president of Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and Hospitals Hawaii Region in September.
Dan Friedrich, CEO of Blake Medical Center in Bradenton, Florida, will retire as soon as HCA Healthcare finds his replacement, according to the Bradenton Herald. And Michael J. Steckler, longtime president/CEO of Jennie M. Melham Memorial Medical Center in Nebraska, recently gave the hospital six months' notice that he plans to retire, News Channel Nebraska reported.