David J. Pynn, President and CEO of St. John Health System in Tulsa, Oklahoma, has announced his plan to retire effective the end of September. St. John is part of Ascension, the nation’s largest nonprofit health system.
Pynn, who also serves as Senior Vice President, Ascension Healthcare, and Ministry Market Executive, Ascension Tulsa, has led St. John since 2011. He previously was Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, and earlier served as President and CEO of St. John Medical Center.
“David was an important part of the leadership team that led the successful integration of the ministries of the former Marian Health System into Ascension in 2013,” said Patricia A. Maryland, Dr.PH, Executive Vice President, Ascension, and President and Chief Executive Officer, Ascension Healthcare. “We appreciate his many years of service to St. John and to Ascension, as well as to Tulsa, where he has been an active and engaged member of the community, and we wish him well in his retirement.”
Mike Mullins, Senior Vice President, Ascension Healthcare, and Ministry Market Executive, Ascension Kansas, who serves as President and CEO of Via Christi Health, will take on the additional responsibility of leading Ascension Tulsa and St. John in an interim capacity.
Ascension’s Via Christi Health is the largest provider of healthcare services in Kansas. Based in Wichita, it serves Kansas and northeast Oklahoma through its doctors, hospitals, senior villages and health services. In Wichita, Via Christi Hospital St. Francis and Via Christi Hospital St. Joseph combined have Kansas’ busiest Emergency Services department, with more than 100,000 patient visits per year.
Via Christi is included in the 2017 list of “100 hospital and health systems with great oncology programs” by trade publication Becker’s Hospital Review, for the second year in a row. Those hospitals chosen “lead the way in oncology expertise, outcomes, research and treatment options,” Becker’s says. In addition, last year Becker’s named Via Christi St. Francis to its list of “100 hospitals and health systems with great neurosurgery and spine programs” and to its list of top 100 best cancer care programs. Via Christi’s heart failure and chest pain programs received the Gold Seal of Approval® from The Joint Commission, a symbol of quality reflecting commitment to providing safe and effective patient care. And Via Christi’s hospitals in Manhattan, Pittsburg and Wichita also were recognized for maternity care, and knee and hip replacement, receiving the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas Blue Distinction® designation.
Since joining Ascension Kansas and Via Christi in 2016, Mullins has been an advocate for those who are poor and vulnerable as a supporter of expanding KanCare, the state’s Medicaid program. Under his leadership Via Christi has begun a $50 million renovation of its St. Joseph campus in Wichita. And he has introduced the Ascension Medical Mission at Home program, working closely with community partners to bring needed services to those who are poor and vulnerable in the greater Wichita community.
Prior to his current role, Mullins served as Chief Operating Officer at St. Vincent Health in Indianapolis, part of Ascension Indiana. He holds a Master of Science in Health Care Administration from Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas, and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from University of Texas at El Paso. He is a Fellow of the American College of Health Care Executives.
In addition to his professional accomplishments, Mullins is a captain in the Medical Service Corps, United States Naval Reserves, having served in Operation Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom.
About St. John Health System
Ascension’s St. John Health System operates seven hospitals and more than 90 healthcare clinics and facilities in eastern Oklahoma and southeastern Kansas. St. John Health System employs approximately 8,000 associates. Across the region, St. John Health System provided more than $68 million in community benefit and care of persons living in poverty in fiscal year 2016. Serving Oklahoma for more than 90 years, Ascension is a faith-based healthcare organization committed to delivering compassionate, personalized care to all, with special attention to persons living in poverty and those most vulnerable. Ascension is the largest non-profit health system in the U.S. and the world’s largest Catholic health system, operating 2,500 sites of care – including 141 hospitals and more than 30 senior living facilities – in 22 states and the District of Columbia.
