Pediatric hospitalist Patrick Conway, MD, has been named president and chief executive officer of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina. Dr. Conway will take over for the retiring Brad Wilson on Oct. 1.
Dr. Conway is currently the deputy administrator for Innovation and Quality, and the director of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Previously, he was CMO at CMS, having served both the Obama and Trump administrations.
Dr. Patrick Conway
Dr. Conway received the high honor of being elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2014, and he has been selected as a Master of Hospital Medicine by the Society of Hospital Medicine.
Hossam Hafez, MD, recently claimed the role of chief of Hospitalist Service with Health Quest Medical Practice (LaGrangeville, N.Y.). Dr. Hafez will be based out of Health Quest’s Vassar Brothers Medical Center in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., coordinating care in that hospital and throughout the Health Quest system.
Dr. Hafez has served full-time hospitalist stints with MidMichigan Health’s Physician Hospitalist Group, as well as with RiteMed Urgent Care. A native of Egypt, Dr. Hafez is fluent in both English and Arabic.
Caldwell UNC Healthcare (Lenoir, N.C.) has promoted David Lowry, MD, to chief medical officer as of Aug. 1, 2017.
Dr. Lowry, a longtime hospitalist and veteran in hospital medicine in general, will lead the building’s hospitalist program, support the chief of staff, and provide direct patient care, as well. He will serve as physician advisor for Caldwell’s Clinical Documentation, Utilization Review, Respiratory Care, and Rehabilitation departments.
Dr. Lowry boasts more than 25 years experience in hospital medicine and led in the creation of Caldwell’s hospitalist program. Since joining Caldwell, he has held leadership positions including chief of medicine. He received the hospital’s Donald D. McNeill Jr. Award for Outstanding Physician Leadership in 2014, as voted by his peers.
Joahd Toure, MD, recently was hired by Adirondack Health (Saranac Lake, N.Y.) as its new chief medical officer. He started his new position in late June 2017.
Dr. Joahd Toure
Dr. Toure will oversee quality care for Adirondack Medical Center, as well as its subsidiaries, including four health centers, a women’s health center, a nursing home, a dental practice and more.
A Massachusetts native, Dr. Toure most recently worked as chief of hospitalist medicine with AdvantageCare Physicians in New York City. There, he helped manage care for patients in that system’s 16 hospitals in the New York metro area. Previously, he was regional medical director for Essex Inpatient Physicians (Boxford, Mass.) and a staff hospitalist at South Shore Hospital (South Weymouth, Mass.).
Longtime employee Emily Chapman, MD, has been promoted to chief medical officer and vice president of medical affairs at Children’s Minnesota Hospital (Minneapolis). The former vice CMO took on her new role on July 5, 2017.
Dr. Emily Chapman
A 10-year veteran at Children’s Minnesota, Dr. Chapman will lead, direct and oversee all clinical initiatives in the Children’s system, focusing on improved performance, safety of patients, education, and research. She will be part of Children’s strategy operation, as well.
Previously, Dr. Chapman served Children’s as its hospitalist program director, and as director of graduate medical education. She is an American Academy of Pediatrics Fellow.
Mark Sockell, MD, is the new chief medical officer at Meritage Medical Network in Novato, Calif. Meritage is a physician-run network that includes more than 700 board-certified physicians in both primary care and specialist fields.
Dr. Sockell has been a member of Meritage’s Board of Directors since 2014, and he specializes in risk adjustment and quality measures. His career has focused on medical education, headed by a stint as director of medical education at St. Mary’s Medical Center (San Francisco). There, he created and ran the inpatient hospitalist program.
Business Moves
Hammond-Henry Hospital (Geneseo, Ill.) recently announced the creation of a hospitalist program, utilizing the facility’s own emergency room physicians. Hammond-Henry will staff one emergency room doctor available for rounds outside of their ER work throughout the day.
The center’s hospitalist program will be led by medical director Kevin Jeffries, MD, who also will serve as one of the hospital’s ER physicians/hospitalists.
Avera Queen of Peace Hospital (Mitchell, S.D.) started its own hospitalist program on Aug. 1, 2017, launching with the goal of improving patient experience within the building. Avera’s hospitalists will be on-site for 12 hours each day, assisting specialists and working with patients who do not have a local primary care physician.
Queen of Peace is the regional referral center for an 11-county area, part of Avera Health System’s 330 facilities across North and South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, and Nebraska.