Beaumont, DMC announce major leadership changes

Breana Noble
The Detroit News
Nancy Susick, president of Beaumont Hospital in Troy, will replace Rosanna Morris as the president of Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak on Feb. 1. The move is part of a larger restructuring plan Beaumont Health is implementing to increase collaboration between campuses and focus on outpatient care.

Changes are underway at Metro Detroit's two largest health systems, including new leadership and restructuring at Beaumont Health, and the departure of the top executive of three Detroit Medical Center hospitals. 

Beaumont Health will condense leadership at its eight hospitals to four president positions, and create and new positions for outpatient service administration and shared services, including pharmacy and laboratory programs. The transitions will take place Feb. 1.

"We want to maintain that position of strength and create more opportunity to work together as a system," said Carolyn Wilson, Beaumont Health chief operating officer, in a press release. "For all those access points, we didn't have dedicated leadership. We want to work together to address that market."

"Our teams will have more opportunity to influence care in positive ways, and it will reduce some of the barriers at the sites."

Meanwhile, Scott Steiner, the chief executive officer of Detroit Receiving Hospital, Harper University Hospital and Hutzel Hospital, will leave the Detroit health system on Feb. 8, DMC CEO Dr. Anthony Tedeschi informed staff in a letter on Wednesday.  A replacement was not announced. 

Scott Steiner

Steiner took the helm at the DMC's Midtown hospitals in October 2016.

“Scott Steiner has been a strong advocate for the DMC, it’s patients and employees,” Tedeschi said in a statement to The Detroit News on Thursday. “He has been an impactful leader, a team player and an invaluable partner to me."

Beaumont restructuring

At Beaumont Health, Rosanna Morris, president of Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, is leaving for an executive leadership position at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. Nancy Susick, president of Beaumont Hospital in Troy, will take her place.

The Troy hospital's chief medical officer, James Lynch, will fill in as interim president for the Troy and Grosse Pointe campuses.

After 30 years with Beaumont, Rick Swaine, the current president of the hospital in Grosse Pointe, will leave Beaumont to pursue other opportunities.

Other campuses of the health system also will have new leadership. David Claeys, currently the president of the Dearborn location, will add the Farmington Hills hospital to his role. His predecessor at the Farmington Hills location, Connie O'Malley, will transition to president of outpatient services.

Christine Stesney-Ridenour, the president of the Trenton hospital, will also take over locations in Taylor and Wayne. Her predecessor in Taylor, Lee Ann Odom, will become president of shared services and remain the leader of Beaumont's mental health expansion plans.

After 10 years of leadership at Beaumont, Eric Widner, current president of the hospital in Wayne, will leave to pursue other opportunities.

Wilson said the departing leaders were involved in the restructuring plans.

According to the health organization, the shakeup is a part of Beaumont's new three-year plan that includes two new outpatient campuses, the creation of an urgent care network and a new psychiatric hospital in Dearborn.

Beaumont Health has a total net revenue of $4.5 billion and consists of eight hospitals with 3,429 beds, 187 outpatient sites, nearly 5,000 physicians and 38,000 employees.

Beaumont Health CEO John Fox said in a news release that “patients are gradually choosing more outpatient-based services, rather than inpatient hospital settings,"

"We must create more access for our patients through a network of acute care campuses, outpatient and retail sites, and joint ventures and partnerships," he said.

"This restructuring helps ensure our future success in the ever-changing world of health care.”

Leadership change at DMC

Steiner took the helm in October 2016, as Harper, Hutzel and Receiving were under investigation by federal and state regulators following a Detroit News report, published that August, that revealed problems with dirty surgical instruments had plagued the health system’s Midtown hospitals for 11 years. 

He has accepted a leadership position in Florida that is not associated with Dallas, Texas-based Tenet Health, the for-profit hospital chain that owns the DMC, Tedeschi said in his letter to staff. 

The hospitals in 2016 were threatened with Medicare termination after inspections confirmed problems with cracked, dirty and missing instruments that endangered patients, and delayed or canceled surgeries.

All three hospitals regained their “deemed” status with the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services after the DMC invested more than $1.2 million in new surgical instruments and improvements the sterile processing center that clean instruments for hospitals on the Midtown campus.

Problems have continued as Harper and Receiving both were again threatened with Medicare termination in November after failing inspections. Those inspections were prompted by complaints by three cardiologists and the top medical executive at Heart Hospital that they lost their leadership roles after complaining about quality of care issues.

After reviewing the inspection reports, CMS determined that Harper and Receiving did not meet Medicare’s conditions of participation for infection control. CMS is currently reviewing results of a follow-up inspection.

Steiner also led the hospitals through raucous negotiations with the Wayne State University Physician's group in 2018. Their one hundred year partnership nearly ended when both parties threatened to sever the relationship.  

The health system and university physicians finalized a new partnership deal in September. 

bnoble@detroitnews.com

kbouffard@detroitnews.com