Appointments

• Rodney Huebbers became president and chief operating officer of Detroit Medical Center on Feb. 25. Huebbers had been COO at the Baptist Health System in San Antonio, Texas.

• Jay Krishnaswamy became chief executive officer at Doctors Hospital at White Rock Lake, Dallas, in February. He had been interim CEO since November 2012.

• Mike Keating became president and CEO of The Christ Hospital Health Network, Cincinnati, in March. Keating washad been serving as president and CEO since Susan Croushore stepped down from the position last September.

• Kevin Spiegel became president and CEO of Erlanger Health System, Chattanooga, Tenn., in February. Spiegel had been CEO of Methodist University Hospital, Memphis, Tenn., since 2008.

• Memorial Healthcare System in Florida made three leadership appointments. Nina Beauchesne, administrator of Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital, was promoted to senior vice president in the system, with responsibility for the Memorial Physician Group. Chantal Leconte, formerly administrator and CEO of Memorial Hospital Pembroke, succeeds Beauchesne as CEO of Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital. Keith Gallagher, a retired brigadier general, is the new administrator and CEO of Memorial Hospital Pembroke. In the Army, Gallagher was CEO of Pacific Regional Command and CEO of Tripler Army Medical Center in Honolulu.

• Steve Narang, M.D., will become CEO of Banner Health's Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center, Phoenix, on April 25. Narang was chief medical officer at Cardon Children's Medical Center in Mesa, Ariz.

• Carlos Beato was appointed CEO of Bon Secours New York Health System in Riverdale, N.Y., on April 15. Beato was corporate director of clinical services for United Methodist Homes of New Jersey.

• Dave Underriner was named CEO of Providence Health and& Services' Oregon region. Underriner was COO of Providence Health and& Services and has been at Providence since 1984.

• John Baird became CEO of both Presence Our Lady of the Resurrection and Presence Resurrection Medical Center on Chicago's Northwest Side. Martin Judd became CEO of Presence Saints Mary and Elizabeth Medical Center in the Wicker Park neighborhood. Baird has been president and CEO of Presence RMC since 2011. Judd has been president and CEO at Presence OLR since 2011. Judd replaces Margaret McDermott, who announced her retirement on Feb. 6.

• Melony Goodhand became COO and vice president of finance at Wellmont Health System's Bristol (Tenn.) Regional Medical Center in March. Goodhand was vice chancellor of finance and chief financial officer of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock.

• Robert Stone will become president and chief executive for the City of Hope, Duarte, Calif. After 10 years at City of Hope, Michael A. Friedman, M.D., has decided to retire as CEO. The change will officially will take place at the end of 2013.

• Sam Bagchi, M.D., became chief medical informatics officer of Methodist Health System, Dallas. Bagchi was chief medical informatics officer and medical director of utilization management at Vanguard Health Systems in the New England region.

• John Orsini was appointed chief financial officer and executive vice president of Cadence Health, Winfield, Ill., the health system created through the merger of Central DuPage Health System in Winfield and Delnor Community Health System, Geneva, Ill. Orsini was at Presence Health, a 12-hospital Chicago-area system, created through the merger of Resurrection Health Care and Provena.

• Randolph Hospital, Asheboro, N.C., named three additions to their senior leadership team. Murray S. Marsh Jr. was named CFO, Angela Orth was named vice president of clinical operations and Charles West, M.D., was named the hospital's first chief medical officer. Marsh joined Randolph Hospital in September 2012. He was CFO of a community hospital in Pennsylvania. Orth joined Randolph Hospital at the end of January after leaving Advanced Home Care, where she was vice president of regional development and quality. West has been practicing with Randolph Ear, Nose and Throat since July 1992.

• Paul Heredia will become chief human resources officer of Citrus Valley Health Partners, West Covina, Calif., on April 15. Heredia was the director of human resources for Providence Holy Cross Medical Center.

• Avice Meehan was appointed vice president of communications and chief communications officer of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York City, in March. Meehan, who was Memorial Sloan-Kettering's vice president of public affairs from 1994 to 2002, most recently was vice president for communications and public affairs at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Chicago.

• DeKalb Medical, Decatur, Ga., named the several people to leadership positions in recent months. John Katsianis became senior vice president and CFO. He was regional vice president and chief financial officer with BJC Healthcare in St. Louis. LeRoy Walker became vice president of human resources. He was service area vice president of human resources of St. Rose Dominican Hospitals in Henderson, Nev. Roy Gilbreath, M.D., became vice president and chief medical officer. He was vice president of medical affairs of the Georgetown (S.C.) Hospital System. Susan E. Breslin, R.N., became chief nursing officer and vice president of patient care services. She has more than 20 years of nursing leadership experience, and had been a chief nursing officer since 1999.

• Dean Wagoner became vice president of human resources for Good Samaritan Hospital, Vincennes, Ind. Wagoner hasd been employed by Good Samaritan Hospital for 36 years. He started at the hospital in 1976 as recruiter in human resources.

• Myra Fouts was named vice president of oncology services for Community Health Network, Indianapolis, on March 12. She was principal for AOC Oncology in Los Angeles.

Retirement

• Dennis Vonderfecht, president and CEO of Mountain States Health Alliance, Johnson City, Tenn., will retire at the end of 2013, after 23 years as CEO. He had been regional vice president of Research Health Services System in Kansas City, Mo., when, in 1990, he became CEO of Johnson City Medical Center, which was an independent community hospital. In 1991, Vonderfecht created the Mountain States Health Care Network, an affiliation of hospitals throughout the region that helped each other by sharing resources for training, recruitment and referrals, and lowered costs by using group purchasing power for supplies. In 1998, Johnson City Medical Center purchased six hospitals in the region from the national system, Columbia HCA, forming the health care organization known as Mountain States Health Alliance. Today, MSHA comprises 13 hospitals, with a 14th expected to be added this year. They range in size from two-bed Johnson County Community Hospital to 445-bed JCMC, which is a major tertiary referral center, a Llevel 1 trauma center, and the region's only state-designated perinatal center. Among the system's other facilities are a psychiatric hospital, a rehabilitation hospital and the region's only children's hospital. MSHA also operates a 250-member physician group, a retail pharmacy chain, a home health agency and a health insurance company. The new CEO is expected to be in place by Oct. 1, and Vonderfecht will officially retire on Dec. 31.

Awards

• The American Organization of Nurse Executives announced the recipients of its 2013 recognition awards, which honor the "best of the best" in leadership practice. Bonnie Clipper, chief nursing officer for Medical Center of the Rockies in Loveland, Colo., and Ann Marie Brooks, vice president of patient care services for Riddle Memorial Hospital–Main Line Health System in Newton Square, Pa., both received the AONE Mentor Award; Victoria Rich, chief nursing executive at University of Pennsylvania Medical Center in Philadelphia, received the AONE Prism Diversity Award; Barbara Caspers, vice president of nursing operations and acute care practice for Catholic Health Initiatives in Englewood, Colo., received the AONE Innovation in Technology Award; and the Northwest Organization of Nurse Executives received the AONE Chapter Achievement Award. AONE is an AHA subsidiary.

Acquisitions

• SSM Health Care, St. Louis, and Audrain Medical Center, Mexico, Mo., signed an agreement under which SSM will own and operate the medical center and its nine MedChoice rural clinics as of April 1. SSM will form a Mid-Missouri Region because of the proximity of the medical center and its clinics to SSM's St. Mary's Health Center, Jefferson City. Brent VanConia, president of St. Mary's Health Center, will become interim president of SSM's Mid-Missouri Region. SSM currently owns and operates 17 hospitals in Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Missouri and Illinois. Audrain Medical Center is, an 88-bed acute care facility, will be renamed to reflect its affiliation with SSM Health Care. The new name is to be determined.

Projects

• Poplar Bluff (Mo.) Regional Medical Center held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for its new, $173 million hospital in January. The seven-story hospital includes 250 private patient rooms, and accepted its first patients on Jan. 26.

• Winn Army Community Hospital, Fort Stewart, Ga., broke ground on the second of its two-phase, $100 million addition and alteration project. A 43,600-square-foot addition will house an emergency department and certain services offices. The vacated hospital space will be renovated to support family medicine, internal medicine, pathology, pharmacy, security, nutritional care and legal offices. Leo A. Daly is providing planning, programming, architectural, engineering and interior design services, and McCarthy Building Cos. is the general contractor.

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