Becker's Hospital Review

32 POPULATION HEALTH 32 CEO/STRATEGY Advocate, Aurora select 15 leaders for combined organization By Anuja Vaidya D owners Grove, Ill.-based Advocate Health Care and Milwaukee-based Aurora Health Care named the exec- utive leadership team that will lead Advocate Aurora Health. e Advocate Health Care and Aurora Health Care merger was finalized April 1. Advocate Aurora Health will comprise of 27 hospitals, 500-plus sites of care and nearly 70,000 employees. e new leadership team includes the follow- ing individuals: • CFO: Dominic Nakis, who has been a lead- er at Advocate for 30-plus years • COO: Bill Santulli, who has been a leader within Advocate for nearly 20 years • CIO: Bobbie Byrne, MD, who has worked at Advocate for nearly one year • CMO: Lee Sacks, MD, who has been with Advocate for 40 years • Chief nursing officer: Mary Beth Kingston, RN, who has worked at Aurora for six years • Chief business development officer: Rick Klein, who has worked at Aurora since 1986 • Chief strategy officer: Scott Powder, who has served as a strategic thought leader at Advocate for 24 years • Chief integration officer: Mike Lappin, who joined Aurora in 2009 • Chief legal officer: Michael Grebe, who joined Aurora in 2017 • Chief marketing officer: Kelly Jo Golson, who has worked at Advocate since 2007 • Chief external affairs officer: Cristy Gar- cia-omas, who joined Aurora in 2011 • Chief human resources officer: Kevin Brady, who has worked at Advocate for 26- plus years • Chief spiritual officer: Rev. Kathie Bender, who has worked at Advocate for nearly 10 years • Chief Advocate medical group officer: Vince Bufalino, MD, who has been with Advocate for six years • Chief Aurora medical group officer: Jeff Bahr, MD, who joined Aurora in 2002 "is strong and visionary leadership team positions us to enhance our work on safety, outcomes, cost and consumer experience to deliver on our promise of reimagining the possibilities of health for those we serve," said Jim Skogsbergh, president and CEO of Advo- cate as well as appointed co-CEO of Advocate Aurora Health. n CEO of Kansas safety- net clinic suspended after audit By Leo Vartorella T he board of Lawrence, Kan.-based Heartland Community Health Center suspended its CEO, Jon Stewart, after a review of the organiza- tion's finances found discrepancies in the allocation of funding, according to KCUR. During the audit, the board found a mix of personal and corporate funds that led to Mr. Stewart's suspension. Heartland Community Health Center, one of nearly 30 safety-net clinics in Kansas, promoted its COO Alexandra Nicholson to interim CEO. "I believe they were just doing audit- ing on a variety of different things and [these findings] came up through that," said Melanie Coen, a spokesperson for the clinic, according to KCUR. Mr. Stewart has been with Heartland Community Health Center since 2008. n How process may be healthcare's greatest problem By Leo Vartorella M any healthcare leaders be- lieve technological changes will quickly improve their organizations, but unless care is stan- dardized, these changes cannot affect genuine change, according to an op- ed in the Harvard Business Review. John Toussaint, MD, founder and executive chairman of Catalysis, and Kathryn Correia, chief administrative officer of Minneapolis-based Fairview Health Services, said the lack of re- producibility in the care-delivery pro- cess causes errors that no technolog- ical innovation can make up for. "When it comes to change, the technology is the easiest part. Most health systems in America have or are implementing the EHR," the au- thors wrote. "And the vendor pro- cesses for implementation have be- come very good. The hard part is to get the doctors, nurses and admin- istrators to agree on what is the best way to deliver the care." The authors argued leaders can im- prove care processes by bringing to- gether members of a clinical team to improve an existing care process or radically reshape a new one through design thinking. "It takes more design time to create a care model that builds in quality and efficiency, but without that work upfront, the technology doesn't mat- ter and, in fact, only increases costs. This thinking is not new," the authors wrote. "Many industries from avia- tion to automotive to nuclear pow- er have been applying this concept of 'process before technology' for a long time. The safety and quality results in those industries is second to none. It's about time healthcare catches up. Our lives may depend on it." n

• Cover