Tacoma, Wash.-based CHI Franciscan Health has appointed Ketul J. Patel, MHA, MBA, as CEO of the system and senior vice president of divisional operations for the Pacific Northwest Region of Englewood, Colo.-based Catholic Health Initiatives.
Currently, Mr. Patel is executive vice president and chief strategy and operations officer at Hackensack (N.J.) University Health Network and Hackensack University Medical Center.
Mr. Patel has more than two decades of leadership experience within several large health systems across the country. Before joining Hackensack University Health Network in 2010, he had served as vice president of operations for the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center's Magee-Women's Hospital, senior vice president at Franciscan Health Alliance St. James Health in Chicago and vice president for strategic planning and business development at Sharp HealthCare in San Diego.
"I am incredibly honored and humbled by the confidence placed in me to lead CHI Franciscan Health," said Mr. Patel. "Now, more than ever, healthcare involves a wide range of providers coordinating care to treat the entire patient — while they are sick, and also while they are healthy. CHI Franciscan has been a national leader in this philosophy of care, and I look forward to enhancing and maintaining the level of efficient and effective healthcare that the system provides."
Mr. Patel will succeed Joe Wilczek, who is retiring after leading CHI Franciscan Health for 16 years.