Dwayne Blaylock interim MCSA CEO
Current administrator Street’s last day Sept. 3
The Medical Center of South Arkansas has named an interim chief executive officer in Dwayne Blaylock, a long-time health care administrator, the hospital announced Friday.
According to an internal memo circulated among hospital staff and Trustees, Blaylock will arrive in El Dorado Monday afternoon.
Former CEO Scott Street’s last day at the hospital will be Friday, September 3.
Street announced his resignation earlier this week in an email to MCSA staff.
Lori DeWese, marketing director for MCSA, said Blaylock has held “executive positions at hospitals in Tennessee and Mississippi over the last 19 years.”
Blaylock comes to El Dorado by way of Mississippi, where he most recently served as CEO at Merit Health River Oaks in Flowood. He simultaneously led Merit Health Rankin, in neighboring Brandon, Mississippi.
Both Merit Health hospitals are owned by Community
Health Systems, the same company that owns MCSA.
DeWese said Blaylock now occupies the role of Project CEO to support CHS-affiliated hospitals.
According to a report from Tupelo newspaper Daily Journal,
prior to taking the position as CEO at the River Oaks hospital, Blaylock was CEO at Gilmore Memorial Hospital in Amory, Miss., a position he served in from 2008 to 2013. Before that, he was the Chief Operations Officer at the River Oaks hospital.
The Clarion Ledger in Jackson, Miss. also reported that Blaylock formerly led as CEO Tennova Healthcare - Harton and Tennova Healthcare - Jamestown in Tullahoma and Jamestown, Tennessee, respectively.
Blaylock earned a bachelors in Business Administration from the University of Mississippi and a Masters in Health Administration from Saint Louis University, according to The Clarion Ledger.
He is originally from Greenville, Miss.
Blaylock was also a member of the Mississippi Hospital Foundation, according to MCSA’s internal memo.
DeWese said Blaylock and Street will work together until Street’s last day next week.
“Dwayne is a seasoned hospital administrator with strong leadership experience gained through holding executive positions at hospitals in Tennessee and Mississippi over the last 19 years,” DeWese said. “He will ensure the Medical Center of South Arkansas sustains operational momentum until a permanent CEO is named.”
Street’s resignation
Street’s resignation announcement on Tuesday, August 24, followed two votes of no confidence in his leadership by members of MCSA’s general medical staff. He served as CEO of MCSA for just shy of four years.
During his tenure as CEO, MCSA invested millions of dollars in renovations to the hospital’s facilities and made partnerships with other health care systems in Arkansas.
Vicki Gilliam, an attorney who represents 11 physicians who participated in the votes of no confidence, said Tuesday her clients felt their voices had finally been heard with Street’s resignation. The fight for a change in leadership at the hospital has been ongoing since the beginning of the summer.
However, another issue physicians are concerned about, Gilliam said, was the recent announcement that the hospital would be changing the ER and hospitalist staffing agency it contracts with. Street announced in an email on August 9 that MCSA would be ending its relationship with SCP Health, which several of the doctors who participated in the no confidence vote are employed through, including Chief of Staff Dr. Ezinne Nwude and her husband, Dr. Ugo Nwude; Dr. Greg Smart, Dr. Joseph DeLuca and Dr. Abrar Khan.
“My clients remain concerned, as the ultimate result of this decision by CHS could mean the replacement of long-serving community acclimated and attached physicians with unfamiliar doctors who may be brought in to care for patients at MCSA,” Gilliam said Tuesday.
A statement issued by MCSA on Tuesday stated that the search for a new, permanent CEO would begin soon.