ChristianaCare abruptly replaced its physician group’s president and chief medical officer
Lisa Maxwell, president of ChristianaCare Medical Group, and Roger Kerzner, the group's chief medical officer, left the health system on Monday.
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The president and chief medical officer of ChristianaCare’s physician network both abruptly “left the organization” on Monday, according to an internal email sent the same day to employees of Delaware’s largest health-care system.
Departing president Lisa Maxwell, a family medicine physician, joined ChristianaCare in 2005 and became the medical group’s president in 2021. Roger Kerzner, a cardiologist, was appointed chief medical officer in 2022, according to his LinkedIn page.
The changes to ChristianaCare leadership are intended to ensure that the organization has “the right structure and senior leadership in place to drive our bold aspirations,” ChristianaCare CEO Janice E. Nevin said in the email obtained by The Inquirer.
“We realize that this announcement may be unsettling,” Nevin said, without providing further detail on the circumstances.
Maxwell’s and Kerzner’s last days were Monday.
» READ MORE: ChristianaCare attending physicians are taking the first step toward forming a union
The ChristianaCare Medical Group is a practice of more than 1,300 providers, according to a 2021 annual report. These include primary-care providers, dentists, and specialists.
A spokesperson for the health system confirmed the departures of Maxwell and Kerzner.
Kert Anzilotti, the system’s chief medical officer, will join the CEO’s executive cabinet as the interim president of the medical group.
Unionization push
The leadership changes come a few weeks after the attending physicians at ChristianaCare petitioned to form a union. The National Labor Relations Board will administer a union election later this month.
Maxwell sent a memo discouraging physicians from supporting the union, WHYY News reported last month.
“I firmly believe a union would not be in the best interests of our physicians, patients and ChristianaCare as a whole,” Maxwell said in the memo.
In the Monday email announcing changes to staff, Nevin said there is no connection between the organizing and Maxwell and Kerzner’s departures.
“This action was not taken because of, or in order to, influence the unionization decision,” Nevin said.