Tenet Healthcare Corp. appointed Ronald A. Rittenmeyer executive chairman, the senior-most executive post in the company. He had been independent lead director. Trevor Fetter will step down from his roles as director and CEO by March 15 or when a successor is appointed, whichever comes first. Additionally, Tenet announced that it “has commenced a process to refresh the composition of its board ... to ensure that the board has the best mix of skills and experience to maximize the future value of the company.”

Appointments

  • Cleveland Clinic named Tomislav Mihaljevic, M.D., CEO and president, succeeding Toby Cosgrove, M.D., starting Jan. 1. Mihaljevic joined Cleveland Clinic in 2004 as a cardiothoracic surgeon. Since 2015, he has been CEO of Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi.
  • Centura Health, Centennial, Colo., named Peter D. Banko, president and CEO in September. For the previous 16 months, Banko had been president and chief operating officer at Centura Health.
  • IASIS Healthcare appointed Jake Golich CEO and Marty Bakos chief financial officer at Mountain Vista Medical Center, Mesa, Ariz. Golich had been the interim CEO at Mountain Vista Medical Center since April, after more than three years as administrator of Tempe St. Luke’s Hospital. Bakos was CFO of Bay Medical Center in Panama City, Fla.
  • Ruth Duling was named CEO for Girard (Kan.) Medical Center. She has been with the medical center for 22 years and was promoted from her role as the director of patient financial services.
  • Blain Claypool was named CEO of St. Joseph Regional Medical Center, Lewiston, Idaho. Claypool was the president of acute care for the three-hospital Ascension Health St. Vincent’s HealthCare system in Jacksonville, Fla.
  • In September, Gary Herbst was named CEO of Kaweah Delta Health Care District, Visalia, Calif. He was Kaweah Delta’s senior vice president and CFO for the past 25 years.
  • MedStar Health named Stuart M. Levine, M.D., president and chief medical officer of MedStar Harbor Hospital, where he also will serve as senior vice president of MedStar Health. He becomes the fourth president of the 157-bed hospital since it joined the MedStar Health network. He succeeds Dennis Pullin, who left after eight years to become the president and CEO of Virtua, a health care system in New Jersey. Levine was a faculty member and assistant professor of medicine in the division of rheumatology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
  • Hansen Family Hospital in Iowa Falls, Iowa, named Chief Nursing Officer Katie Rieks interim CEO. She has 34 years of nursing experience and has been with the organization for 30 years as a nursing professional. A longtime member of the management team, she became CNO in 2014. The search for a new CEO is in progress with Mercy Health Network–North Iowa, which provides an administrator and other management and consultative services for Hansen Family Hospital and other hospitals in the network. Former CEO Cherelle Montanye has been appointed chief administrative officer at PeaceHealth St. John Medical Center in Longview, Wash.
  • Page Vaughan was appointed CEO of Springs Memorial Hospital in Lancaster, S.C. He will continue to lead Chester Regional Medical Center, where he has been CEO since 2011. Springs is an affiliate of Community Health Systems Inc.
  • Gerard M. Cleary, D.O., was appointed chief medical officer and senior vice president, chief of staff, for Abington–Jefferson Health in Pennsylvania. He had been chief of the neonatology division at Abington Hospital since 2015.

Retirement

  • John Popovich, M.D., president and CEO of Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit and executive vice president and CMO of Henry Ford Health System, will retire from the organization at the end of the second quarter next year. Popovich came to Henry Ford Hospital in 1975 as an intern immediately out of medical school and became the hospital’s president and CEO 35 years later. Immediately following his fellowship at the hospital in 1980, he became a senior staff physician for Henry Ford Medical Group and director of the medical intensive care unit, where he was instrumental in the growth of intensive and critical care. Popovich developed the critical care training program and led the expansion of critical care medicine at Henry Ford Hospital, and was later appointed division head, pulmonary and critical care medicine, a position he held for almost 10 years. In 1999, Popovich became chair of the department of internal medicine, and in 2008, he was named senior vice president for clinical affairs for the health system. He became Henry Ford Hospital president and CEO in 2010 and was named executive vice president, CMO, for the health system two years later.

Major Gift

  • A foundation created by Chicago Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo donated $3.2 million to Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago to fund programs for patients and families dealing with cancer. The gift will fund two new staff positions, as well as help families facing financial hardship because of their child’s treatment. Rizzo is a cancer survivor.

Mergers

  • Northside Hospital in Sandy Springs and Gwinnett Health System in Lawrenceville submitted their proposed merger agreement to the Georgia Office of the Attorney General for review. If the state approves, the five-hospital Northside-Gwinnett Health System could be operational early next year. The new health system also will include hospitals in Canton, Cumming and Duluth, as well as cancer treatment centers, imaging centers, urgent care centers and other outpatient locations throughout the state. The combined system will have 1,479 beds, nearly 21,000 employees and 3,500 physicians on staff.
  • The University of Maryland Medical System formally affiliated with Dimensions Healthcare System, which is now known as University of Maryland Capital Region Health. All Dimensions entities have been renamed to reflect their affiliation with UMMS. The formation of the new regional health care system to serve residents of Prince George’s County and the surrounding region dates to 2010, when multiple partners including Prince George’s County, the state of Maryland, the University System of Maryland, the University of Maryland Medical System and Dimensions Healthcare System formally initiated discussions about the future of health care in Prince George’s County.