Mercy Regional Medical Center CEO Will McConnell announced Friday through a news release his plans to resign from his position April 10.
McConnell has spent the past three years of his decade-long tenure at Mercy leading the local hospital. In his role as chief executive, he expanded Mercy Family Medicine – a primary care group – to locations in Horse Gulch and Bayfield, according to the news release.
In an interview with The Durango Herald on Saturday, McConnell said he is leaving his position for another opportunity in Arizona. Transition plans are in the works, but he declined to comment further about how his departure might impact operations at the hospital.
The search for a replacement will begin immediately, according to the news release.
“I’m excited for this next step in my journey and have every confidence in the amazing team at Mercy to continue in the great work of caring for our patients and our community,” McConnell said in the news release.
McConnell began his work at Mercy as vice president of process improvement, transitioned to vice president of Mercy Medical Group and Operations and Outreach Strategy – from which he was promoted to CEO.
In his tenure, Mercy Regional Medical Center received a 5-star rating for overall hospital quality from the Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services for five years in a row, according to the news release. Nationally in 2019, only 293 hospitals – slightly less than 8% of 3,725 rated by CMS – received a five-star rating.
The hospital also was recently named as one of the best Rural-Community Hospitals in the United States by eMediHealth, according to the news release.
Mercy also saw an increase to its Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade during McConnell’s tenure – the organization gave the hospital a “C” in 2018 and a “B” rating in 2019, based on federal data.
Medicare penalized Mercy last year for high rates of health problems related to hospital stays.
The federal agency will withhold 1% of its payments for patients discharged from the hospital for the next two years because the facility ranked among the worst – the lower 25% – of hospitals that failed to prevent health problems related to hospital care, according to federal policy.
bhauff@durangoherald.com
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