Here are three hospital CEOs to follow in 2018, as named by STAT.
1. Thomas Mihaljevic, MD, incoming CEO of Cleveland Clinic
Dr. Mihaljevic, who started at Cleveland Clinic as a cardiothoracic surgeon in 2004, oversaw the health system’s hospital and clinic in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, since 2015.
In 2018 he will succeed prominent and well-known Cleveland Clinic President and CEO Toby Cosgrove, MD, who will continue to work with the system in an advisory role. Under Dr. Mihaljevic’s leadership, which will begin in 2018, the clinic plans to open its first UK location in London by 2020. The clinic also aims to implement a plan to improve diversity and find success in the insurance business, which it is pursuing through a recent partnership with Oscar Health.
2. Tim Putnam, CEO of Margaret Mary Community Hospital (Batesville, Ind.)
During a time when nearly one third of rural hospitals faced risk of closure, Mr. Putnam, who has headed MMCH for nearly 10 years, led the 25-bed hospital toward a net revenue of $100 million last year. Mr. Putnam links the hospital’s success to prioritizing outpatient services, hiring staffers from local communities and earning patients’ trust in the community.
Mr. Putnam is now planning to remove MMCH’s inpatient beds. Under this concept, rural hospitals such as MMCH would provide outpatient and 24/7 emergency care but transfer patients who need long-term inpatient care to larger regional hospitals. Mr. Putnam believes the plan can provide rural hospitals with more financial flexibility to stay open in a limited capacity rather than closing outright.
3. Kevin Lofton and Lloyd Dean, co-CEOs of the newly merged Dignity-Catholic Health Initiatives system (Chicago)
The merger between Englewood, Colo.-based Catholic Health Initiatives and San Francisco-based Dignity Health, led by Mr. Lofton and Mr. Dean, respectively, created the second-largest nonprofit health system in the U.S. upon its finalization in December.
Mr. Lofton and Mr. Dean will jointly oversee a system of 139 hospitals from a Chicago-based headquarters. The institution, which will have 159,000 employees and over 25,000 physicians, demonstrates a larger trend of consolidating health systems across the country.
The system also reflects a growing trend in mergers between Catholic hospitals. For example, St. Louis-based Ascension Health and Renton, Wash.-based Providence St. Joseph Health recently began discussing the possibility of a mega-merger.
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops expects Catholic hospitals to follow their directives on reproductive services. Therefore, women’s rights and civil liberties advocates may watch Mr. Lofton and Mr. Dean in 2018 to see if their newly combined clout may influence conversations and decisions around reproductive health services.
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