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.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Melanie Fontes Rainer was formally sworn in as the director of the Office for Civil Rights for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Wednesday.
Fontes Rainer served as the acting director of the office before being appointed permanently to the position last month. Previously, she held the position of counselor to HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra. While in this position, she implemented the No Surprises Act and sat on the White House Task Force on Reproductive Healthcare Access, a seat she still holds.
In her position as director, she will oversee the enforcement of federal civil rights, conscience protections, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act Privacy, Security and Breach Notification Rules and the Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act and Patient Safety Rule.
Fontes Rainer previously worked as a senior aide in the U.S. Senate and women’s policy director at the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee for Chair Patty Murray where she led work on the Affordable Care Act, reproductive rights and gender equality.
Sutter Health
Warner Thomas has been tapped as the next president and CEO of Sutter Health, a not-for-profit health system, starting Dec. 1, 2022.
For the last decade, Thomas had served as the president and CEO of Ochsner Health, the largest private employer in Louisiana. During his tenure, he expanded the company’s digital door to welcome 1.4 million patients annually. Under his leadership, Ochsner was ranked Louisiana’s premier hospital by U.S. News & World Report for a decade, along with the top children’s hospital in the state.
Thomas claims 30 years of experience working in health systems, including the post of president at Foundation Medical Partners. For six years, he also managed a multispecialty physician group and advanced network development strategies as vice president of managed care and network development for Southern New Hampshire Health systems.
Thomas was preceded by James Conforti, who has served as interim CEO since January 2022.
Teladoc Health
Saranya Loehrer, M.D., has been announced as Teladoc Health’s first-ever chief health equity officer. She will report to Chief Medical Officer Dr. Vidya Raman-Tangella and drive the telehealth company’s equity strategy to ensure equitable access to care.
Loehrer previously held the position of system vice president and inaugural health equity officer at CommonSpirit Health. She spent time with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and the Nobel Prize-winning organization Physicians for Human Rights and is the co-founder of the Civic Health Alliance.
The new position is intended to further the company’s goals of delivering culturally competent care and decreasing barriers to access.
Loehrer’s responsibilities will include overseeing the company’s goals of making care available in more languages, hiring diverse providers and expanding the diversity of demographic and ethnographic data collected to address disparities in health outcomes.
Trinity Health
Montez Carter has been named the new president and CEO of Trinity Health of New England effective Oct. 3.
In his new role, Carter will lead the health system, which operates several hospitals including St. Francis Hospital in Hartford and practice groups in Connecticut and Massachusetts. Carter previously held the same positions at St. Mary’s Health Care System in Athens, Georgia. Both health systems are Catholic and not-for-profit.
Carter began his career as a pharmacist before moving into hospital leadership, in which he held myriad roles. He was tapped for the position of president and CEO after a nationwide search and a unanimous vote of the board of directors' selection committee.
The position was previously held by Reginald Eadie, M.D., who will fill a physician enterprise development role with parent company Trinity Health.
> Kaiser Permanente names Jay Robinson III as senior vice president and area manager of Sacramento and South Sacramento service areas.
> UNC Health tapped Nicole Mushonga, M.D., as system executive director for health equity at Chapel Hill, North Carolina-based health system.
> HCA Healthcare Inc. has announced the retirement of Bruce Moore, president of service line and operations integration, after four decades of work with the hospital chain.
> TimelyMD, a virtual health platform for college and university students, has announced several appointments including Pete Blaisdell as chief revenue officer, Becky Laman as senior vice president of strategy, Nassim Bickman as vice president of care transformation and Phil Tallman as vice president of university health and strategic partnerships.
> SelectHealth, the nonprofit insurer and subsidiary of Intermountain Healthcare, promoted Nathan Foco to the role of chief marketing officer.
> The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research tapped David Kaslow, M.D., for the position of director of the Office of Vaccines Research and Review.
> Seattle Children’s named Eric Tham, M.D., as senior vice president and chief research operations officer.
> Wheel, a health tech startup, announced Sameer Merchant as chief technology officer and Steve Manning as senior vice president of product.
> University of North Texas Health Science Center named Sylvia Trent-Adams, Ph.D., a former deputy surgeon general, as the center’s new president.
> Keck Medicine of USC has named Shannon Bradley as the health system’s first chief diversity and inclusion officer.
> Virgin Pulse, a digital health and well-being company, added Salem Shunnarah as executive vice president and general manager of health plans and systems.
> Cone Health welcomed Deno Adkins as senior vice president of ambulatory and consumer services.
> Tower Health in Pennsylvania appointed Barbara Romig as chief nursing officer for both the health system and its flagship facility Reading Hospital.
> Truveta promoted Saman Zarandioon to director of engineering at the health data startup.
> Saint Francis Healthcare System in Missouri has named Justin Davison as its new president and CEO.