New Jefferson CEO makes first move to consolidate competing hospitals
Jefferson's CEO said he was hired to make a system out of the hospitals Jefferson accumulated between 2015 and 2021.
Joseph Cacchione, the new CEO of Thomas Jefferson University, is starting to leave his mark on the university’s health system that grew from 3 to 18 hospitals between 2015 and 2021.
As part of a reorganization announced Thursday, Jefferson’s hospitals will be divided into three regions, each with its own president. The changes are designed to help Jefferson become more efficient and will involve an unspecified number of job cuts, mostly among executives, according a document obtained by The Inquirer.
Among the departures are Richard J. Webster, president of Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Center City and Magee Rehabilitation Hospital, and Alison Ferren, president and chief operating officer of Abington Health.
“We need to better integrate Jefferson. Today, many of our hospitals at Jefferson really compete with one another. This new structure will really lend itself well to making our clinical programs knit together in a more integrated way,” Cacchione, who came to Jefferson in September, said in an interview.
Going from five divisions to three will flatten management, Cacchione said. More changes are in the works for the way Jefferson conducts business after the new structure is in place, he said.
“Nibbling around the edges in health care today is just not going to get us to where we need to be,” Cacchione said. That’s especially true at a place like Jefferson that came together so quickly through acquisitions under Cacchione’s predecessor, Stephen K. Klasko.
Nationwide, health systems are struggling financially because of higher costs for labor, pharmaceuticals, and other supplies.
Jefferson has had operating losses in two out of the last three years and would have had losses in each of those years if it hadn’t received significant government support, as most health systems did, to offset the impact of COVID-19. The nonprofit health system, which also owns the Medicaid and Medicare insurer Health Partners Plans, had $7.9 billion in revenue in the year ended June 30.
Losses at most Philadelphia-area health systems continued over the summer. Financial results for the last part of the year are not yet available.
Under the plan announced Thursday, Jefferson’s wholly owned hospitals — a collection that includes historic Jefferson facilities, plus those of Abington Health, Aria, Kennedy Health System, Einstein Healthcare Network, and Magee Rehab — will be put into three groups, with the goal of streamlining operations.
North Region: Einstein Medical Center Montgomery, Abington Hospital, Bucks Hospital, Frankford Hospital, Lansdale Hospital, and Torresdale Hospital.
Central Region: Einstein Medical Center Elkins Park, Einstein Medical Center Philadelphia, Jefferson Hospital for Neuroscience, Methodist Hospital, Magee Rehabilitation Hospital, MossRehab, and Thomas Jefferson University Hospital.
East Region: Cherry Hill Hospital, Stratford Hospital, Washington Township Hospital.
The structure does not include two hospitals that Jefferson controls as part of joint ventures: Rothman Orthopedic Specialty Hospital and Physicians Care Surgical Hospital.
The central region, which includes two of Jefferson’s three largest hospitals, will be led by Dixie James, who has been president and chief operating officer of Einstein Medical Center Philadelphia.
Brian Sweeney, who currently runs Jefferson’s New Jersey hospitals, formerly Kennedy Health System, will take over the north region but continue overseeing the Jersey hospitals until a replacement is hired.
Jefferson’s regional presidents will report to Ken Levitan, Jefferson’s interim chief operating officer and a former Einstein executive.