Memorial Hermann taps new leader
Charles “Chuck” Stokes is selected following a shakeup at the largest hospital network in Houston.
Charles “Chuck” Stokes has been appointed president and CEO of the Memorial Hermann Health System, two weeks after he was promoted to the interim job following an abrupt shake-up atop the largest hospital network in the Houston area.
Stokes, who began his career as a registered nurse and joined Memorial Hermann as its chief operating officer in 2008, succeeds Dr. Benjamin Chu, a highly touted executive who left June 19 after just a year as CEO. Dan Wolterman, Chu’s predecessor, held the job 14 years.
“At a time when our industry is facing unprecedented challenges with declining reimbursements and escalating costs, I have every confidence Chuck has the experience and visionary leadership necessary to navigate our organization through this period of change and uncertainty,” Memorial Hermann Board Chair Deborah Cannon said in a statement.
Memorial Hermann forsook a national search, Cannon said through a spokeswoman, because of Stokes’ “extensive resume, including 40 years of leadership experience, deep knowledge of the system and demonstrated success in fostering a culture of collaboration and innovation.” She called him “a natural choice.”
The board voted to approve Stokes’ promotion at their quarterly meeting June 29, officials said.
Stokes, 63, said in a telephone interview that he is excited about the appointment and “honored and humbled” that the board has confidence in him. He said he wants to “continue the successful work Memorial Hermann’s been doing for decades,” but acknowledged he must steer the system to adapt to a rapidly changing healthcare environment.
“I’ve seen health care evolve multiple times over
my career and now we have to adjust to a new normal of value-based care,” said Stokes. “We have to redesign our care and delivery model to make sure it’s affordable, high-quality and safe care and make it more consumer friendly. We know we have to do better than we’re doing today.”
Changing structure
Recent financial challenges at Memorial Hermann have led to more than 460 layoffs this year, just under 2 percent of the system’s 25,000-employee workforce. The layoffs came in two stages: About 110 employees, mostly executives, were cut in the spring, and some 350 more, mostly rank and file employees, were cut last week, the week after Chu’s departure.
As COO, Stokes oversaw operations for Memorial Hermann’s 12 acute-care hospitals, five specialty hospitals and more than 200 outpatient clinics scattered around the region. He recently was named one of the nation’s top 25 COOs in medicine by Modern Healthcare magazine.
Memorial Hermann does not plan to fill the COO position, officials said. It instead will redistribute those duties among existing executives, part of its ongoing effort to flatten the leadership structure.
Dr. Giuseppe Colasurdo, president of The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Memorial Hermann’s academic partner, hailed the appointment.
“We look forward to working with Chuck, (who) has been integral in strengthening the close partnership between our two institutions,” Colasurdo said in a statement. “Together, we have built one of the nation’s top teaching hospitals and developed high-value clinical programs that serve not only Houston, but receive referrals from around the world.”
‘Relate to the patient’
Prior to joining Memorial Hermann in 2008, Stokes served as president of North Mississippi Medical Center, a 650-bed acutecare hospital, as a COO for three other health systems and as vice president of operations for the Texas Heart Institute.
Stokes emphasized the importance of his background as a critical care nurse.
“From that experience, I readily relate to the patient in the bed,” said Stokes, who has a master’s degree in hospital and administration from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. “Working with doctors and nurses, putting together clinical programs, I want to help make us a more physician- and clinically-driven organization.
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