Karen Davis will become interim president and CEO of Indian River Medical Center, Vero Beach, Fla. Jeffrey Susi is retiring from the CEO role Dec. 31. Davis is a senior director of Alvarez & Marsal, a health care consulting company.

Appointments

  • Randy Currin in November was appointed CEO for HCA West Florida’s Blake Medical Center in Bradenton. Currin was chief operating officer at Bay Medical Sacred Heart in Panama City, Fla.f
  • John Langlois was named CEO for Prime Healthcare’s Riverview Regional Medical Center, Gadsden, Ala. Langlois was the hospital’s chief financial officer.
  •  Daniel Sinnott became president and CEO of Saint Francis Healthcare, Wilmington, Del., in November. Sinnott was senior vice president for business development at Saint Francis Healthcare.
  • Loretto Hospital, Chicago, appointed George N. Miller Jr. president and CEO on Nov. 1. Miller is the first African-American CEO in the hospital’s history. Miller is the former president and CEO of CommUnityCare Health Centers, the largest Federally Qualified Health Center in Texas and the 10th largest in America.  
  • The Regional Medical Center, Orangeburg, S.C., has appointed Charles E. Williams president and CEO. Williams was vice president of performance standards and clinical operations for Tenet Healthcare Corp.  Williams was expected to start Dec. 11.
  • Wes Braman was named interim CEO of Freeman Health System’s Nevada Regional Medical Center. Freeman assumed management of the hospital on Nov. 1 under a two-year contract with the City of Nevada. Braman was Freeman’s vice president of business development.
  • Donald McKenna will become president and CEO of Jupiter (Fla.) Medical Center in January. McKenna is the president and CEO of St. Mary’s Health Care System in Athens, Ga.
  • Bruce Tassin was named CEO of Kentucky–One Health in Lexington. Tassin will continue as president of Saint Joseph Hospital, a post he has held since 2015. Tassin will lead Kentucky-based operations of the recently expanded Southeast Operating Division for Catholic Health Initiatives. Chuck Neumann will continue as interim president and CEO for KentuckyOne Health, leading divesting operations.
  • Navicent Health has named Darren Pearce CEO of Navicent Health Baldwin, Milledgeville, Ga. Pearce has been interim CEO of NHB since Navicent Health purchased the hospital, then known as Oconee Regional Medical Center, on Oct. 1. Pearce is also senior vice president of Rural Health Network, Navicent Health.

Retirements

  • Joseph Swedish is retiring as CEO of Anthem, the second-largest health insurer in the nation. He will be succeeded by Gail Boudreaux, the former CEO of UnitedHealth Group’s insurance arm. Boudreaux became Anthem CEO and president and a member of the company’s board of directors Nov. 20. Swedish will continue as executive chairman until May and then become a senior adviser to Anthem until May 2020. Swedish’s career in health care spans more than four decades. He has worked for Indianapolis-based Anthem, a licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, since 2013. He became chairman in 2015. During his tenure, Swedish saw Anthem’s annual revenue grow from $71 billion in 2013 to $84.9 billion in 2016.
  • Bloomington, Ill.-based Chestnut Health Systems’ CEO Russell J. Hagen will retire Jan. 7, having spent 43 years with the organization, the last 36 as CEO. While Chestnut has become a well-known provider of behavioral health services for individuals addressing addiction and mental health issues, it also has become a highly diversified yet well-integrated health and human service provider under Hagen’s watch.  He helped to create the Lighthouse Institute research and training division, which conducts human subject research and clinical trials focusing on substance use disorders, and he spearheaded the development of Chestnut’s international employee-assistance program. Hagen will continue to work on a part-time basis over the next two years in support of this program.