Durham Regional Will Get New CEO
By Ray Gronberg, The Herald-Sun, Durham, N.C.
Feb. 1–DURHAM — A Duke University Hospital administrator will step up to become the chief executive officer of Durham Regional Hospital on March 1, officials said.
Kerry Watson, Duke Hospital’s senior associate chief operating officer, got the Durham Regional job thanks to a Wednesday night vote by the county hospital’s board of trustees. He takes over for interim CEO Fran Mauney, who has been running Durham Regional since August.
County Manager Mike Ruffin, who participated in the CEO search, voiced enthusiasm for Watson’s hiring.
“The one thing that impressed me about him is that becoming the CEO of Durham Regional is a very personal thing for him,” Ruffin said. “He has a real passion for the legacy of health care in Durham and the role Durham Regional can play. That really connected for me. He’s going to bring the hospital forward and bring it to a level that the hospital board and the Durham community want to see and deserve.”
Watson has worked at Duke for the past 10 years. Duke University Health System operates Durham Regional under a lease from the county.
The 369-bed facility stands at 3643 N. Roxboro St. It’s an acute-care hospital equipped with operating rooms and an intensive-care nursery.
At the start of the decade Durham Regional had problems both financially and with patient satisfaction, but former CEO David McQuaid received credit for turning things around between his 2003 hiring and his departure last summer.
Ruffin said the new CEO’s first task is to figure out how to pay for improvements recommended by Durham Regional’s long-range strategic plan. He declined, however, to say what those improvements were.
“I can’t say because it’s a confidential issue,” Ruffin said when asked what the plan’s recommendations entail. “Because it’s such a competitive environment, no hospitals reveal their strategic plan.”
Watson joined Duke University’s staff a decade ago after stints at Holy Cross Hospital in Silver Spring, Md., and Howard University Hospital and Walter Reed Army Medical Center, both in Washington, D.C.
At Duke, he “has proven himself to be an extremely effective leader, has demonstrated an ability to build strong teams and rally consensus behind major issues and initiatives, and has produced solid results,” said William Fulkerson, Duke Hospital CEO.
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Copyright (c) 2008, The Herald-Sun, Durham, N.C.
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