Another woman is stepping down from a high-profile position at PeaceHealth. Shannon Surbur, COO for Sacred Heart Medical Center, has announced her departure. Two other women executives also have left in the last few months -- Oregon Network CFO Wendy Apland and Sacred Heart Medical Center CNO Louella Freeman – both of whom were replaced with men.
Now questions are being asked about whether Rand O’Leary, chief executive of the PeaceHealth Oregon Network, is to blame. Rumors are circulating that he believes women belong in the home or in executive support or nurse role, not in executive roles.
Several PeaceHealth employees have told The Lund Report that they’ve heard O’Leary make disparaging comments that these women were not focused on their work and too concerned about family matters. O’Leary could not be reached for comment by press time. It’s also unknown whether Apland and Freeman left voluntarily or whether Surbur was forced out.
For her part, Surbur joined PeaceHealth as operational director of specialties, overseeing Sacred Heart’s physicians. Later, she became executive director of its surgery institute and assumed the chief operating officer position in 2013.
In that capacity, she was responsible for Sacred Heart’s two campuses, RiverBend (347 beds) and University District (104 beds), with direct accountability for ancillary services, surgical services (25 ORs with approximately 16,000 cases annually), cardiovascular services (7 cath labs with over 5,000 procedures annually), trauma and labor management, according to her Linked In page.
She was also responsible for leading strategic and operational planning to grow patient volume and market share while simultaneously increasing efficiencies and lowering costs throughout the network, having executive responsibility for more than 1,000 employees.
The other recent departure of Kristopher Kitz, a man, who had been vice president of strategy, innovation and development apparently occurred because he was too threatening to O’Leary, while the medical staff, large physician groups and the community respected and trusted him, according to insiders.
PeaceHealth has about 6,000 employees in Lane County with hospitals in Springfield, Eugene, Cottage Grove and Florence.
PeaceHealth had lower revenue than forecast in its budget during the first 10 months of last fiscal year, which ended on June 30, and saw a saw a significant drop in the paper value of the nonprofit’s investments, according to a confidential financial statement obtained by The Lund Report.
Vancouver-based PeaceHealth operates 10 hospitals across Oregon, Washington and Alaska, along with a large network of clinics, labs and other health-related programs. Its fiscal year runs from July 1 through June 30. The financial document obtained by The Lund Report provides a snapshot of PeaceHealth’s current year performance through April 30 – in other words, the first 10 months of the 12-month fiscal year. While the most recent full-year financial reports for individual hospitals based in Oregon show those institutions turning large profits, including three of PeaceHealth’s four hospitals in the state in its 2014-2015 fiscal year, the parent company is not performing as well..
Diane can be reached at [email protected].
