Crevier to Retire As Kent President

By FELICE J. FREYER; Journal Medical Writer

Mark E. Crevier, the Kent Hospital president who faced a vote of no-confidence by doctors while leading the hospital through rocky fiscal times, announced yesterday that he will step down on Oct. 15.

Crevier, 57, has been president of the Warwick hospital for almost two years. “It was my plan and my wife’s plan to do an early retirement,” Crevier said. “This has very little to do with what’s happening within the four walls of Kent.”

“This is Mark’s decision completely,” said John J. Hynes, president and chief executive officer of Care New England, Kent’s parent company. “He had always wanted to retire early. We’re going to miss him.”

In September, about 100 doctors declared by a 2-to-1 vote that Crevier was not the right CEO to steer the hospital through a financial crisis that resulted in a $9.4-million loss in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, 2007. Doctors told The Journal that Crevier ignored the medical staff’s suggestions, failed to deal with a large number of nurses’ resignations and tried to save money by making cuts that ultimately reduced income.

Crevier said he had decided before the doctors’ no-confidence vote that he would retire, and Hynes also said the vote had no role in Crevier’s departure. Since the vote, a committee has been meeting with the doctors and relations with them have improved “dramatically,” Crevier said.

Dr. Gary A. L’Europa, a neurologist who participated in the no- confidence vote last fall, said yesterday that doctors remain discontented – but loyal to Kent and still admit their patients there. L’Europa said he hopes the hospital will replace Crevier with a physician.

Crevier’s predecessor at Kent, Robert E. Baute, was a physician. In Rhode Island, only Miriam and Butler hospitals have physician- presidents.

“Both kinds of CEOs can work,” said Hynes. The hospital is starting to assemble a search committee in the hope of finding a replacement by Oct. 15. Hynes said doctors would be involved in the selection process.

Crevier had been senior vice president for finance at Care New England for nearly a decade when he came to Kent as chief operating officer in September 2005. He became president in April 2006.

Crevier said that Kent’s financial position has improved on his watch. The hospital had budgeted for a $1.5 million loss in the current year, but the latest projections say the loss will be about $450,000 less than that. During his time at Kent, Crevier introduced new information technologies, expanded clinical services, brought in a new radiology group and introduced residency programs in emergency medicine and family practice.

Kent is one of Rhode Island’s larger hospitals, with an annual budget of about $250 million and about 180 to 230 inpatients on any given day.

Crevier’s announcement comes as Kent’s parent company, Care New England, is preparing to seek state approval to merge with Lifespan, the hospital company that includes Rhode Island Hospital.

Crevier is the third hospital president in Rhode Island to step down within the past year. Dr. Joseph F. Amaral left Rhode Island Hospital in June. That hospital hopes to conclude a national search for president by the summer, said spokeswoman Jane Bruno.

H. John Keimig left St. Joseph Health Services in June, and he too has not yet been replaced.

ffreyer@projo.com / (401) 277-7397

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