Health Care Personnel Update for July 2007
Thomas Priselac, president and CEO of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, has been named chair-elect designate of the American Hospital Association Board of Trustees.
Priselac will assume the chair position in 2009; he will head the Long-Range Policy Committee as chair-elect beginning Jan. 1, 2008 (AHA release, 7/23).
The San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors on July 10 appointed Patrick Petre as director of Arrowhead Regional Medical Center.
Petre most recently served as administrator of Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center in Burbank. He also has held positions at several other hospitals throughout California (Gang, Riverside Press-Enterprise, 7/11).
Navy Capt. Steven Nichols on July 19 stepped down as commanding officer of the Camp Pendleton Naval Hospital. Nichols will be succeeded by Navy Capt. Forrest Faison III, who formerly served as commander of a medical task force in Kuwait.
Nichols will transfer to Afghanistan to help establish and operate a health care system (Phan, San Diego Union-Tribune, 7/18).
State Treasurer Bill Lockyer (D) appointed Barbara Liebert as executive director of the California Health Facilities Financing Authority. The appointment took effect July 23.
Liebert, a Folsom attorney, has operated a local health care law practice and served as staff counsel to the Department of General Services (Robertson, Sacramento Business Journal, 7/10).
Integrated Healthcare Holdings representatives chose Robert Jameson, an Orange County judge, to serve as an independent director of the IHH board. Jameson was one of two nominees selected by Orange County Superior Court Judge Gregory Lewis to lead the board (Galvin, Orange County Register, 7/12).
Lewis named an independent director in an effort to break a deadlock among board members that had prevented IHH from refinancing its debt (Reed, Orange County Business Journal, 7/23). The new director will be independent of both shareholders and management.
IHH owns Western Medical Center-Santa Ana and three other hospitals in Anaheim, Orange and Santa Ana (Orange County Register, 7/12).
Barbara Johnson on Aug. 1 took over as executive director of the Medical Board of California, replacing Dave Thornton, who retired July 31.
Johnson, a registered nurse, for the past four years has served as executive director of the California Telemedicine and eHealth Center (Robertson, Sacramento Business Journal, 7/31).
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) has appointed Beth Gould (R) of Meadow Vista to the Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission.
Gould previously has held positions at the Department of Developmental Services and HHS. Senate confirmation is not required for the position, which does not offer compensation (Office of the Governor release, 7/17).
San Francisco General Hospital CEO Gene Marie O'Connell last month was appointed chair of the National Association of Public Hospitals & Health Systems. The one-year term began June 30.
O'Connell, who joined the hospital in 1984, has served as CEO for the last nine years (Rauber, San Francisco Business Times, 7/13).
Mike Garko on July 20 resigned as interim CEO and CFO of Valley Health System, board Director Darren Magness said.
The hospital district is in the process of selling its assets to Select HealthCare Solutions, a San Diego County-based hospital development group. Magness said the pending change of ownership influenced Garko's decision to leave.
Garko since August 2006 served as interim CEO of the hospital district, which owns three hospitals in Riverside County (Atienza, Riverside Press-Enterprise, 7/13).