Pekin Hospital CEO Named CEO of the Year by QHR

Brentwood, Tenn. (June 17, 2009) – Quorum Health Resources (QHR), the nation’s largest hospital management company and the seventh largest healthcare consulting firm in the United States, recently announced Kevin Andrews, CEO of Pekin Hospital, as the recipient of its top honor: CEO of the Year. The award was given as part of QHR’s 2010 Excellence in Leadership awards.

“Kevin Andrews and the management team at Pekin Hospital are being celebrated for having guided their hospital through a very difficult time: In 2009, Central Illinois’ major employer downsized, driving unemployment in Pekin from 6.5 percent to 16 percent,” said QHR President and CEO James L. Horrar. “Despite these challenges, the hospital’s income statement and balance sheet remained strong – in large part because Kevin and his team instituted an expense reduction plan to accommodate the changing market dynamics.”

“Kevin is a very strategic thinker,” added QHR Regional Vice President over Pekin Hospital, Gerald Parton. “He makes tough decisions because it’s the right thing to do. In doing so, he has won the respect of the hospital’s management team, hospital board and medical staff.”

One example of Kevin’s commitment to sustainable success: physician relations. According to a 2008 Physician Opinion Survey, Pekin Hospital had an overall physician satisfaction rate of 63 percent. Kevin approached this challenge head-on and, as a result, in 2009, the hospital’s physician satisfaction rate was 92 percent – even as the hospital recruited six new physicians and converted employed physician contracts from fixed salary to another payment model.

And when deep cuts were made to employee benefits, including frozen salaries, reduced 401K matches, decreased shift differentials and elimination of recruitment bonuses, the CEO took the bad news to the employees in person, holding town hall meetings for every shift to explain why these cuts were necessary to avoid layoffs. They didn’t like the news, but valued the transparent communication of the situation facing the hospital.

“Kevin’s leadership style and the results achieved under such difficult circumstances serve as an example to us all,” Horrar concluded. “We’re proud to call him QHR’s CEO of the Year.”

A native of El Paso, Texas, Kevin has served as CEO of Pekin Hospital since 2007. Prior to joining Pekin Hospital, he served as Senior Vice President, QHR Intensive Resources business unit, which provides interim short-term operational support, and addresses and advises owners on operational improvements of financially distressed hospitals. Kevin has more than 30 years of healthcare experience, which encompasses over a decade of multi-facility management and division operations for a large hospital company, and 15 years as a hospital CEO, five of which were spent at hospitals in the Midwest.

He received a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in Management from Texas A & M University and a Master’s Degree in Health Administration from Washington University. He is a fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives.

In addition to the CEO of the Year award, QHR also presented 2010 Excellence in Leadership honors to CEOs at the following client hospitals:

o Benewah Community Hospital (Saint Maries, Idaho)
o Bucyrus Community Hospital (Bucyrus, Ohio)
o Georgetown Hospital System (Georgetown, S.C.)
o Girard Medical Center (Girard, Kansas)
o Gritman Medical Center (Moscow, Idaho)
o Hancock Medical Center (Bay St. Louis, Miss.)
o Hoopeston Regional Health Center (Hoopeston, Ill.)
o Jersey Shore Hospital (Jersey Shore, Penn.)
o Matagorda Regional Medical Center (Bay City, Texas)
o Neshoba County General Hospital (Philadelphia, Miss.)
o Phelps Memorial Health Center (Holdrege, Neb.)
o St. James Parish Hospital (Lutcher, La.)
o Tippah County Hospital (Ripley, Miss.)
o West Park Hospital (Cody, Wyom.)

“QHR is proud and pleased of the accomplishments of all of these skilled hospital leaders. Their commitment to serving their communities – while positioning their hospitals for long-term sustainability – is commendable,” Horrar said.

QHR (Quorum Health Resources) has provided consulting, management and education resources to hospitals and health systems for three decades and has had a management relationship with Pekin Hospital since 2001. QHR is the market leader in hospital management, with nearly 150 current multi-year clients across the U.S. As a consulting resource, QHR is the seventh largest healthcare management consulting firms in the U.S., and the QHR Learning Institute reaches more than 10,000 healthcare professionals each year. For more information, go to http://www.qhr.com/.

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