After almost a year of searching, the Southwest Health System Board of Directors has announced W. Kent Rogers of Oklahoma has been appointed CEO of Southwest Memorial Hospital.<\/p>\n
Rogers has 16 years of experience as a CEO and assistant administrator in hospitals ranging from 25 to more than 300 beds, holds a master\u2019s degree in business administration and a master\u2019s in health-care administration.<\/p>\n
Rogers is currently president of Mercy Hospital in Ada, Okla. He will assume his new position the week of March 19. He and his wife, Elisabeth, have a daughter who is a senior in high school and a son who is in sixth grade. His family will join him at the end of the school year.<\/p>\n
Board chairman Judy Schuenemeyer says that the Roger\u2019s experience working within small critical access hospitals and his strong health-care finance background pushed him to the top of the list.<\/p>\n
She added that the intensive interview process involved physicians, department managers, and a senior leadership committee, which each interviewed candidates and provided feedback to the board of directors before it made the final decision.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe did a nationwide search, and had definite criteria that we were looking for. As a critical access hospital, we don\u2019t have more than 25 beds, we\u2019re rural and have a population that\u2019s low income for the most part which creates all kinds of challenges,\u201d said Schuenemeyer.<\/p>\n
\u201cMany (hospitals) have a payer mix that is 40 to 50 percent or more commercial insurance, and our commercial insurance payers make up about 20 percent of our payer mix, the rest is Medicaid\/Medicare, so we were looking for someone who had some experience with that kind of payer mix, who came from community with similar challenges.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rogers will take over for interim CEO Liz Sellers, who has been serving double-duty as the chief clinical officer and CEO.<\/p>\n
The search for a CEO began in May 2014, after former CEO Kent Helwig unexpectedly resigned a month prior. Helwig was appointed to the position in 2011.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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