Morris Hospital CEO resigns

Comments (...)

E-mail this story

Print this story

Comments

Share

Less than seven months after beginning in the job, Bill Bruce resigned late Friday afternoon as president and CEO of Morris Hospital & Healthcare Centers. His departure was effective immediately.

Bruce, who held the position since April 2009, indicated his resignation was for personal reasons.

No further comment nor explanation from Bruce was included in the press release the hospital issued around 5:30 p.m. Friday. Janet Long, public relations manager for Morris Hospital, denied a request Bruce’s resignation letter be made public, saying that is something between Bruce and the hospital board of directors.

“Personal reasons are, I think, just that – personal,” Long said.

She did note the press release, as it was issued, was in keeping with Bruce’s wishes and had been approved by him.

“Although he was essentially still in the orientation phase of his leadership, Bill shared a lot of new ideas, including a maintenance medication program that will save significant dollars for employees and the organization,” Leon Residori, chairman of the board of directors at Morris Hospital & Healthcare Centers, said in the approved release.

“He also encouraged Morris Hospital to pursue designation as a resource hospital for emergency medical services, and that application process is currently under way. We regret that he was only with us for a short time.”

The board of directors has appointed Thomas Meyer, chief financial officer at Morris Hospital & Healthcare Centers, as acting CEO.

Meyer came to Morris Hospital in 2000 from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois, where he served as a vice president.

Meyer will be assisted by a team of administrators that has more than 100 years of service at Morris Hospital, along with an experienced management team.

“We’re very fortunate at Morris Hospital to have a well-qualified and committed team that handles the day-to-day operations of the hospital,” the press release quoted Meyer as saying. “As always, our first and foremost priority is to provide exceptional patient care, and that’s where our focus remains today.”

The board of directors will be assembling a search committee to begin the process of selecting a new president and CEO.

Bruce was selected in January, following a similar search by the board, and officially began his duties in the hospital’s top leadership position on April 27.

Within weeks of starting the job, Bruce told the Morris Daily Herald he had been drawn to Morris because the city had the same sense of family and faith as the small Iowa town in which he grew up.

“It has core Midwestern values,” he said. “It’s a rural setting with a lot of city amenities.”

He concluded at that time, “I want people to know my name is Bill; I prefer Bill to Mr. Bruce. They can give me a call or stop by and have a cup of coffee if they need to talk to me.”

At the time of his hiring, Morris Hospital indicated Bruce had, from 1999, served as CEO of St. Joseph’s Community Health Services in Hillsboro, Wis.

Prior to that, he served in a variety of administrative and leadership roles in the health care industry for more than 35 years. He began his career with Mary Greeley Memorial Hospital in Ames, Iowa, as a hospital-based paramedic and then spent two years as executive director for an emergency physician group based at Mercy Hospital in Des Moines.

From there, he joined Ottumwa Area Healthcare Delivery System in Ottumwa, Iowa, where he was a hospital vice president before becoming president of Regional Enterprises, Inc., one of the system’s for-profit subsidiaries.

Bruce also was noted to have spent eight years with Chariton Area Healthcare Delivery System in Chariton, Iowa. While he was with Chariton, he was chief executive officer of Lucas County Hospital and Health Center and was responsible for expanding physician access, establishing a charitable foundation, and diversifying the operations beyond acute care by adding several new services.

Serving patients in more than 18 communities, Morris Hospital & Healthcare Centers includes the 86-bed Morris Hospital, as well as physician offices in Braidwood, Channahon, Dwight, Gardner, Marseilles and Newark.

The hospital has more than 900 employees, along with a medical staff of more than 180 physicians, and a volunteer force of more than 400 community members. The hospital is governed by an 11-member volunteer board of directors, along with separate boards for the Morris Hospital Foundation and Morris Hospital Auxiliary.
 

Comments