A California hospital executive departs following an uproar over teachers in a well-to-do district gaining access to COVID-19 vaccines.
Uproar leads to resignation. A San Jose, Calif., hospital CEO has resigned following an uproar over inappropriate COVID-19 vaccine distribution, according to the San Jose Spotlight, which first reported the incident. Good Samaritan Hospital CEO Joe DeSchryer submitted his resignation Tuesday and told staff in an email he would no longer be affiliated with parent company HCA Healthcare, according to the news outlet. DeSchryer’s departure follows backlash over a Spotlight report that the hospital allowed teachers and staff at an affluent Los Gatos school district to gain access to COVID-19 vaccines before they were eligible by pretending to be healthcare workers. The district’s superintendent told staff the vaccines were available because they had raised money in the spring for meals for healthcare workers at Good Samaritan. DeSchryer, previously with Tenet Healthcare, had been cited earlier in his career as a rising star in the industry.
New CEOs in NYC public health system. Christina Contreras and Christopher Roker have been named to new positions the NYC Health + Hospitals system. Contreras will
be promoted from executive director NYC Health + Hospitals/North Central Bronx to NYC Health + Hosptials/Metropolitan in East Harlem. Roker, who is currently CEO at Metropolitan, will serve as CEO of NYC Health + Hospitals/Lincoln in the Bronx. Roker will continue to serve as chief growth officer. Both appointments are effective April 1, 2021. NYC Health + Hospitals country’s largest public health care system, serving more than a million New Yorkers each year in more than 70 locations across the city’s five boroughs.
CEO of UT Health East Texas resigns. Moody Chisholm, the CEO of UT Health East Texas, based in Tyler, has resigned with no explanation given, according to the 10-hospital health system. The resignation was announced in a press release on March 3, 2021. Chisholm had been president and CEO since 2018, when East Texas Medical Center Regional Healthcare System joined UT Health Northeast to form the new entity. The statement said UT Health East Texas COO and CFO Donald Baker will serve as interim market CEO. Baker came to the health system last year from Hillcrest HealthCare System of Tulsa, Okla. Officials with parent company Ardent Health Services praised Chisholm’s leadership.