Major Gifts
• The Argyros Family Foundation made a $2.5 million gift to fund educational and professional growth opportunities for nurses at Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian, Newport Beach, Calif. George and Julia Argyros presented the gift May 2 on behalf of the foundation in conjunction with the hospital's annual National Nurses Week May 6–10. Julia Argyros noted that her sister, Connie Jones, was a nurse for more than 40 years.
• Irene Pollin donated $10 million to the Barbra Streisand Women's Heart Center at the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute in Los Angeles. The new Linda Joy Pollin Women's Heart Health Program will further the research and educational work of C. Noel Bairey Merz, M.D., director of the center and the Women's Guild Chair in Women's Health. Pollin and her husband Abe owned the Washington Wizards basketball team and the Washington Capitals hockey team. Their daughter Linda Joy was born with a heart defect and died at age 16. Irene Pollin founded the nonprofit Sister to Sister organization in 1999, which has become the largest provider of free heart disease screenings for women.
• Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City in April established the Feil Family Brain and Mind Research Institute as a multidisciplinary translational neuroscience research hub. Named in honor of Gertrude and Louis Feil, the institute was created with a $28 million gift from the Feil family. Constantino Iadecola, M.D., a leading neuroscientist in the field of cerebrovascular diseases, stroke and dementia, will direct the institute. He is also a professor of neurology at Weill Cornell and a neurologist at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center.
• Courtney and Paul Amos II donated $1.5 million to the Columbus (Ga.) Regional Medical Foundation. The gift will support the pediatric emergency department, which opens this month at the medical center campus. It was made in honor of Kathryn Cheek, M.D., who has practiced pediatrics in Columbus for more than 25 years. Courtney Amos is a foundation board member. Paul Amos II is president of Aflac and chief operating officer of Aflac U.S.
Appointments
• Akram Boutros, M.D., became president and chief executive officer of MetroHealth System, Cleveland, on June 1. He was founder and president of a New York-based health care consulting firm.
• Cherie Sibley in May became CEO of Clark Regional Medical Center, Winchester, Ky., which is owned and operated by LifePoint Hospitals. She was COO of Danville (Va.) Regional Medical Center.
• Robert Ritz in July will become president of Catholic Health Initiatives' Mercy Medical Center–Des Moines, Iowa. Ritz is president and CEO of St. John's Hospital in Springfield, Ill., which is operated by Hospital Sisters Health System. Dave Vellinga, who has been the hospital's president and CEO for the past 15 years, will retain his position as a division leader for CHI, president and CEO of Mercy Health Network Iowa and will remain chairman of the University of Iowa Health Alliance.
• Patricia Maryland was promoted to president of health care operations and COO of Ascension Health, St. Louis. She will continue as Michigan ministry market leader for Ascension Health and president and CEO of St. John Providence Health System in Detroit through June 30.
• Paul A. King was named executive director of the University of Michigan's C.S. Mott Children's Hospital and Von Voigtlander Women's Hospital in Ann Arbor. King is a senior executive at Children's Hospital Los Angeles.
• Eric Ammons became president of Mercy Hospital Jefferson in Crystal City, Mo., on May 20. He was president of Mercy Hospital in Independence, Kan. Mercy Hospital Jefferson, formerly Jefferson Regional Medical Center, became part of Mercy on Feb. 1.
• Nick Barto was named to the newly created position of senior vice president, capital finance, at Catholic Health Initiatives, Englewood, Colo. He was senior vice president of financial planning and analysis for Novant Health Inc.
• Arturo Polizzi becomes COO of ProMedica Toledo (Ohio) Hospital and ProMedica Childrens' Hospital this month. He is also chief human resources officer for ProMedica.
• Vickie M. Peoples became vice president of patient and family experience for Dayton (Ohio) Children';s Hospital on June 3. She was execurtive director of Children's Home Care of Dayton.
• Patrick Torcson, M.D., was named vice president, chief integration officer of St. Tammany Parish Hospital, Covington, La., in April. He will continue as director of hospital medicine.
• Ann McEntire, R.N., becomes chief nursing officer of Citizens Baptist Medical Center, Talladega, Ala., this month. She was executive director of medical, cardiovascular and emergency nursing at Princeton Baptist Medical Center, Birmingham, Ala.
• Beth Francis was named vice president, human resources, for Baptist Health System, Birmingham, Ala. She had been vice president of human resources for DCH Health System in Tuscaloosa, Ala., since 2010.
• Dawn Crumel became vice president and general counsel of Meritus Health in Hagerstown, Md. Previously, she was senior associate counsel for Children's National Medical Center in Washington, D.C.
• Daniel Hoodin was named vice president of managed care strategy and development for Hospital Sisters Health System in Springfield, Ill., in April. Hoodin was vice president of contract and provider services for the Georgia and Alabama markets for Cigna HealthCare in Atlanta.
• Kevin DeSimone became vice president of government relations for Hackensack University Health Network, Bergen County, N.J., in April. He was a health care associate involved in government relations for MBI-GluckShaw Inc.
• Mark B. Schiffer, M.D., became vice president, community and physician relations, for Lenox Hill Hospital, New York City. He will continue in his current role as vice chairman, cardiovascular medicine department. Schiffer has been on the medical staff since 1983.
• Denise D. Fall became nurse executive at Legacy Salmon Creek Medical Center, Vancouver, Wash., in April. She had been interim nurse executive since March 2012.
Retirement
• Ananias Diokno, M.D., executive vice president and chief medical officer at Beaumont Health System in Royal Oak, Mich., since September 2006, stepped down from his administrative role on June 1 and will retire on Sept. 1. As CMO, Diokno worked to organize and integrate Beaumont's three hospital medical staffs; instituted health system chair positions for major specialties to ensure consistent, high-quality medical practice; and established a single set of medical staff bylaws. He also played a key role in creating Beaumont Physician Partners.
David Wood, M.D., current president of Beaumont Physician Partners, became chief medical officer on June 1.
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