TARA BANNOW January 22, 2020
CommonSpirit Health will become the latest
health system to drop the dual CEO model when longtime CEO Kevin Lofton retires
this summer.
When he steps down June 30, Lofton will have
served 17 years as CEO of Catholic Health Initiatives, the predecessor
organization that merged with Dignity Health on Feb. 1, 2019 to form
Chicago-based CommonSpirit, a massive not-for-profit system with 142 hospitals.
Lofton, 65, currently shares CEO duties with
Lloyd Dean, who will become the organization's sole CEO after Lofton retires.
The two have distinct responsibilities within the CEO office, with Dean, the
former CEO of Dignity, overseeing clinical, financial and human resources and
Lofton in charge of advocacy, compliance, IT, international business, legal,
philanthropy, system partnerships and governance.
"It has been an honor to share the creation
of CommonSpirit Health with Kevin and there is no question that all of us have
appreciated the gifts that he brought forward," Dean said in a statement.
"I will forever cherish the opportunity to have been a part of this
journey with him."
Under Lofton's leadership, CHI grew from a
68-hospital, $6 billion enterprise to a $15.5 billion organization in 18 states
at the time of the merger. While at the helm of the organization, he worked to
increase equity in healthcare and reduce health disparities. He was the
founding chair of the American Hospital Association's Equity of Care
Initiative, which was later joined by the Catholic Health Association, American
Association of Medical Colleges and America's Essential Hospitals.
Lofton received $6.6 million in total
compensation in fiscal 2016, which ended June 30, 2017, according to the most
recent tax form available.
Some health systems have dabbled in the co-CEO
model following mergers, and experts have told Modern Healthcare it can be a
potentially successful short-term solution, so long as duties between the two
are well-defined and the set-up doesn't last more than three years.
Advocate Aurora Health pared back its CEO office from two to one in 2019,
slightly more than a year since the organization was formed through a merger,
with Jim Skogsbergh emerging as sole CEO and Dr. Nick Turkal leaving the
organization. The health system still maintains two headquarters, however: one in Milwaukee
and another in Downers Grove, Ill.
Before joining CHI, Lofton served as CEO of
Howard University Hospital and UAB Hospital, as well as chief operating officer
of UF Health Hospital in Jacksonville, Florida. He also served as the AHA's
board chairman in 2007, regent at large in the American College of Healthcare
Executives (ACHE) and as a member of the Executive Leadership Council. He has
also been included in Modern Healthcare's "100 Most Influential People in
Healthcare" list 15 times, including as No. 54 in 2019.
Tessie Guillermo, CommonSpirit's board
chairwoman, called Lofton an "exceptional leader" in a statement.
"We have been lucky to be on this journey
under the leadership and expertise of both Kevin and Lloyd as they worked
side-by-side in the office of the CEO," she said. "We are confident
that under Lloyd's leadership we will be well-positioned to transform how we
deliver care across the 21 states we serve."
Lofton became the CEO of CHI in 2003. In a news release, CommonSpirit said Lofton chose to announce
his retirement just before the organization's first anniversary on Feb. 1
because it has a "strong foundation, a clear mission and strategy, and a
talented leadership team in place."
Lofton, who serves on the boards of Gilead
Sciences, Rite Aid Corp. and the GSU Foundation, earned a master's of health
administration degree from GSU Robinson College of Business in Atlanta.
CommonSpirit has been losing money since the merger, including a year-over-year
operating loss of $227 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2020, which ended
Sept. 30, 2019. Analysts have pressured the health system to explain why progress
toward cost savings isn't happening faster.
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