MemorialCare Health System is remaking its front office with an eye on healthcare reform.
The Fountain Valley-based nonprofit company has announced a raft of promotions and hires in recent weeks. MemorialCare owns Orange Coast Memorial Medical Center, also in Fountain Valley, and Saddleback Memorial Medical Center, with campuses in Laguna Hills and San Clemente.
“We looked at where we saw our health system going, kind of in the midst of all this change in healthcare delivery and nationally, and identified where do we need to bring on new talent or focus people’s attention differently,” MemorialCare Chief Executive Barry Arbuckle said.
Arbuckle said the new hires and role changes reflect what he called an “evolution” of MemorialCare from a hospital operator to an integrated delivery system, with many prongs that reflect changes within the wider healthcare industry, including the Affordable Care Act, employers getting frustrated with insurance premium hikes and moves to value-based purchasing, among other things.
The recent executive shifts and hires include:
• Karen Testman, who was promoted last month to chief financial officer. Testman was the health system’s senior vice president of financial operations. She also previously served as chief financial officer at Orange Coast and Saddleback.
• Rick Graniere, MemorialCare’s corporate treasurer, added the title of chief investment officer. Graniere, a 30-year MemorialCare veteran, spent 13 years as its chief financial officer.
• Wendy Dorchester was appointed chief administrative officer of MemorialCare’s Seaside Health Plan business unit, a new position. Dorchester was previously with Long Beach Memorial Medical Center and Miller Children’s Hospital—both also part of MemorialCare. Seaside started operating last fall, an outgrowth of some assets MemorialCare bought from Signal Hill-based Universal Care at the end of 2012. Seaside serves people and families in Orange and Los Angeles counties.
• Diane Laird was named MemorialCare’s chief strategy officer, adding to her role as chief executive of Greater Newport Physicians and Nautilus Healthcare Management Group. Greater Newport and Nautilus became part of MemorialCare two years ago.
• Dr. Mark Schafer is the new chief executive of the MemorialCare Medical Foundation doctors’ group. Schafer replaced Patrick Kapsner, who retired Jan. 1. He was previously chief medical officer at the foundation, which has more than 2,000 employed and affiliated doctors.
Other new positions MemorialCare expects to fill in the coming weeks include a chief transformation officer’s post, chief medical informatics officer.
MemorialCare’s requirements for its new hires or new roles “differed by position,” Arbuckle said.
For instance, he said the system is looking to fill the chief transformation officer position with someone who has knowledge of population health management, patient safety and outcome issues, as well as value-based purchasing.
Arbuckle noted that he split the roles of chief financial officer and corporate treasurer because he viewed them “as kind of different from each other.”
“There was so much work and activity going on [that] I basically split them,” he said, adding that Testman focuses on the health system’s “true financial operations,” while Graniere’s role deals with things such as debt financing and oversight of the investment portfolio, “which well exceeds $1 billion.”
MemorialCare sought a chief strategy officer because “our strategic plan over the next three to five years contains so many expansions and getting into diversified areas that we need someone to singularly be in charge of that,” Arbuckle said of Laird’s new role.
