Ascension President and Chief Executive Officer Anthony R. Tersigni, EdD, FACHE, announced that three executive leaders who have made tremendous contributions to the success of Ascension over its 19-year history plan to depart.
“As we look to a future in which our focus is to become the health partner for the individuals we are privileged to serve, Patricia A. Maryland, Dr.PH, has decided to leave Ascension after serving 15 years within our health ministry,” Dr. Tersigni said. Pat will continue in her role as CEO of Ascension Healthcare through June 30, primarily focusing her work in Washington, D.C., to support the hospital transition from acute care to a new, community-based health village model. The position of CEO of Ascension Healthcare will be eliminated effective July 1, 2019.
John D. Doyle will retire from Ascension effective the end of this fiscal year, June 30, 2019, after a career marked by leading the development of our Strategic Direction and of key innovations and new approaches in how we serve our communities.
David B. Pryor, MD, will retire from Ascension at the end of this fiscal year, capping his leadership of our nationally recognized and industry-leading transformational efforts to improve patient safety and clinical quality for those we serve.
In support of the integrated health ministry, Joseph R. Impicciche, JD, MHA, will serve in the newly created role of Ascension President and Chief Operating Officer. He will have oversight of both healthcare operations and services and will report to Dr. Tersigni in his continuing role as Chief Executive Officer. Impicciche has served as Executive Vice President and General Counsel of Ascension since 2004. In this role he has been responsible for providing legal counsel to the enterprise, Board of Directors and executive management. He also has had executive-level oversight responsibility for Ascension Care Management.
Concurrently, Ascension is announcing changes to its operational structure and leadership accountabilities to create stronger connections and greater alignment between its strategic vision and its ability to effectively implement its Advanced Strategic Direction.
Read on for more details about the vitally important impact that Dr. Maryland, Mr. Doyle and Dr. Pryor have had on the national health ministry and its ability to fulfill its promise to deliver compassionate, personalized care to all, especially people living in poverty and those most vulnerable. “Ascension has been blessed by their leadership and presence, and we wish them all the best as they prepare to leave Ascension,” Tony said.
Patricia A. Maryland, Dr.PH
As we look to a future in which our focus is to become the health partner for the individuals we are privileged to serve, Pat Maryland will spend the coming weeks managing the transition of Providence Hospital in Washington, D.C., from acute care to a health village concept. Following that work, Pat has decided to leave our health ministry after serving with dedication and distinction for 15 years.
On July 1, 2017, Pat assumed the position of Executive Vice President, Ascension, and President and Chief Executive Officer, Ascension Healthcare, advancing from her previous position of President, Healthcare Operations and Chief Operating Officer, Ascension Healthcare. In both these roles she had overall responsibility for the strategic and operational aspects of our Healthcare Division, with more than 2,600 sites of care in 21 states and Washington, D.C.
Pat is a respected and visionary healthcare servant leader, and her career accomplishments have been recognized numerous times by industry organizations and publications. In 2017 she was first named to Modern Healthcare’s list of the 100 most influential leaders in healthcare, and last year she rose to No. 46 on the magazine’s annual list. She “has been at the forefront of pushing Ascension to tackle one of the nation’s most pressing healthcare issues: access to behavioral healthcare,” Modern Healthcare said. “Under her leadership, the large not-for-profit provider developed a behavioral health service line. She’s also spoken publicly and penned opinion pieces advocating for a more coordinated approach to addressing the opioid epidemic.”
Pat also has been recognized in several other Modern Healthcare lists, including the 2018 Who to Watch in Healthcare, Top 25 COOs in Healthcare 2017, as well as the biennial Top 25 Minority Executives in Healthcare since 2014 and Top 25 Women in Healthcare since 2015. Last year she also was honored as one of the “Most Influential Business Woman” by the St. Louis Business Journal. And in 2017 she received the Black Women’s Agenda Health Award during the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s 47th Annual Legislative Conference in Washington, D.C. At that event, Pat said it has been her life’s work to ensure that healthcare is seen as a universal and fundamental right for all. “One of my greatest wishes is to achieve a just and inclusive policy of healthcare that leaves no one behind – in our country, and, do we dare dream it – in our world,” she said, showing why she is such a widely known and respected national healthcare leader.
Earlier, Pat was named Woman of the Year in 2014 by the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association, which honors women who are fiercely dedicated to developing, mentoring and supporting female leaders in the healthcare workplace – a description that clearly applies to Pat. In 2006 she was given the top healthcare executive award by the Indiana Minority Health Coalition, and in 2003 she received the Leadership in Healthcare Award from the Detroit Chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the 2003 Woman of the Year Award from the Beta Omicron Zeta Chapter for outstanding accomplishments in improving and providing quality healthcare. Earlier, the Cleveland Clinic honored her with a Women of Professional Excellence award.
These awards and recognitions reflect the level of Pat’s commitment to the healthcare industry, to those we serve, and to those whose careers she has sponsored and mentored. She is known for her commitment to cure a fragmented healthcare system; her support for, and outstanding demonstration of, female, minority leadership; and her unwavering desire to reduce health disparities. Her commitment to improving healthcare access and affordability has been a hallmark of her career, as reflected by her service as Chair of the Citizens’ Health Care Working Group, a group mandated by the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003.
During her time with Ascension, Pat has been at the forefront of our healthcare transformation, working to unite our health systems as One Ascension – work that has been instrumental in our ability to deliver improved outcomes and an exceptional experience for providers and patients at an overall lower cost of care, and to developing integrated systems of connected care in the communities we serve. Pat also was deeply involved in the creation of Ascension Medical Group, uniting 7,900 employed providers who together strive toward consistent goals, measures and outcomes.
Before assuming her Ascension Healthcare role in 2013, Pat served as the Michigan Ministry Market Leader for Ascension and the President and Chief Executive Officer of St. John Providence Health System, Warren, Michigan, where she provided strategic and operational leadership for St. John Providence while promoting alignment among health ministries within Ascension Michigan and the System Office on issues related to Mission and Vision.
Prior to that role, Pat served as President, St. Vincent Indianapolis Hospital, and as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for St. Vincent Health. In this dual role she oversaw operations for St. Vincent Hospitals and Health Services, the flagship tertiary hospital of the St. Vincent system. At St. Vincent she helped to create six Centers of Excellence and developed an agreement with Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center to enhance the pediatric subspecialty services to St. Vincent Children’s Hospital. Under her leadership, St. Vincent Indianapolis Hospital received top-ranking recognitions by Anthem, Leapfrog and Healthgrades, and received the Consumer Choice Award nine years straight.
Pat already had extensive experience in strategic planning, patient care operations, service line management, finance, clinical program development and evaluation. Before joining St. Vincent Health, she served as President of Sinai-Grace Hospital and Senior Vice President of Detroit Medical Center. She also served as Executive Vice President/Chief Operating Officer at North Oakland Medical Centers, Pontiac, Michigan, and worked for 15 years at Cleveland Clinic in Ohio.
Throughout her more than 30 years of healthcare executive leadership experience, Pat has served on more than 25 boards in the nonprofit, for-profit, joint venture and public sectors. She has board committee experience that encompasses executive, audit, finance, strategy and quality committees. She currently is a board member for the Catholic Health Association and has served on the boards of Art Van Furniture and Joint Venture Surgical Center. She is also a member of the American College of Healthcare Executives and National Association of Health Services Executives.
“Pat has been a blessing to Ascension and those we are privileged to serve, as she has used her gifts of mind and heart to advance the transformation of our health ministry with courage, dedication, creativity, and a discerning and prayerful spirit,” Tony said. “I wish to thank her for her continuing work to shepherd the transition of Providence Hospital to new forms of service in alignment with our Mission, as well as for her many years of dedicated, Mission-focused service as part of the senior leadership of our integrated national health ministry.”
John D. Doyle
John Doyle’s many successes at Ascension continue to pay dividends, both literally and figuratively, as they enhance our ability to deliver on our Mission. John currently serves as Executive Vice President, Ascension, and President and Chief Executive Officer, Ascension Holdings and Ascension Holdings International. His title reflects the broad portfolio of the work he has led to advance our Strategic Direction and the strength of character and commitment to Catholic healthcare that he has brought to each of the initiatives over which he has served.
John joined the Ascension System Office in 2000 as Senior Vice President, Strategic Business Development & Innovation, after serving as Executive Vice President for Strategic Development for St. Vincent Hospitals and Health Services (now Ascension St. Vincent) in Indiana, overseeing strategic planning, network development, managed care, marketing, corporate communications and government affairs. John’s contribution to St. Vincent included creating a strategic architecture which broadened St. Vincent’s influence across the state and ultimately led to the creation of St. Vincent Health.
Among John’s many accomplishments, he had the vision and foresight to champion the transformation of the exceptional biomedical engineering department at St. Vincent into a separate subsidiary to serve other Ascension ministries, and eventually healthcare organizations around the globe. Under his guidance, the new subsidiary, TRIMEDX and TRIMEDX International, developed an entirely new business model, helping healthcare organizations repair and refurbish high-dollar equipment that original manufacturers would no longer support in favor of selling replacement units. This business model proved enormously successful, and today TRIMEDX has transitioned to become a joint venture, with Ascension continuing our role as partner. Under John’s guidance, TRIMEDX also developed its own holding company, and incubated Medxcel Facilities Management, which continues today as an Ascension subsidiary providing high-value facilities services to our ministries and other healthcare organizations.
John also was key to the development of Ascension Ventures, our strategic healthcare venture fund subsidiary that now has more than $800 million in capital under management. As a strategic investor, Ascension Ventures adds value by sharing its portfolio companies’ solutions across its limited partner base, generating returns to those partners that help support their missions to provide care to those who are poor and vulnerable. The creation of Ascension Ventures helped pave the way for Ascension to become so much more than an operator of acute care hospitals.
In 2004, John become Chief Strategy Officer, Ascension, and General Manager, Transformational Development. In this role he had responsibility for developing and ensuring implementation of Ascension’s overall Strategic Direction, including the conceptualization of our promise to those we serve to deliver Healthcare That Works, Healthcare That Is Safe, and Healthcare That Leaves No One Behind, for Life. As such, he was the architect for the framework to create the capabilities necessary to achieve Ascension’s 2020 Vision, including clearly defining the internal strengths that would be required.
At the same time, under John’s vision and guidance, the Transformational Development team sought out and incubated transformational solutions and innovative relationships with the potential to accelerate accomplishment of the Strategic Direction, work that continues today across our health ministry as well as at the System Office. He also led the team’s efforts to define Healthcare That Works in relation to providing a consistent, exceptional Ascension experience for those we serve, introducing the Net Promoter Score as the primary way to measure success in achieving that goal.
Always seeking new ways to serve our health ministry, in 2012 John launched and led Ascension Holdings, which is composed of a portfolio of companies designed to add value to the organization by providing services to the health ministries of Ascension as well as other health systems in the United States and internationally. Not long after, he led the creation of Ascension Holdings International as a way to engage globally to support Ascension and advance the provision of healthcare around the world. An early project for Ascension Holdings International was spearheading Ascension’s work to help establish Health City Cayman Island in partnership with NH Healthcare out of India both as a learning laboratory and to address unmet needs for tertiary care in Cayman, the Caribbean, and Central and South America. John was the initial Vice Chairman of the HCCI Board.
“Ascension is a stronger, more diverse and more successful health ministry thanks to the many contributions of John Doyle,” Tony said. “I am grateful for his creativity, transformational vision and steadfast fidelity to our Mission. John is truly a values-driven leader and I feel fortunate to have served with him.”
David B. Pryor, MD
Thanks to the inspired vision and leadership of Dr. David Pryor as Ascension’s Chief Clinical Officer, and in his previous roles, Ascension is a national leader in clinical safety and quality, benefiting millions of individuals in the communities we serve across the country.
David joined Ascension in 2001 to lead our work in care excellence. He was already a distinguished physician executive at that time, as well as an accomplished cardiologist. With great foresight, he saw the opportunity for Ascension to lead our industry in providing more reliable, high-quality care.
As Chief Medical Officer of Ascension Health, David collaborated with an outstanding team of physician, nursing and executive leaders and leveraged our clinical expertise, resources and information technology to advance the System’s agenda and help us become a premier, spiritually based partner for health.
Many of the important clinical initiatives and programs developed over Ascension’s more than 19-year history owe their success to David, including:
- Journey to Zero – our 2002 commitment to eliminate preventable injuries and deaths in our hospitals by 2008
- “Destination Statement II,” which was crafted early in Ascension’s history as a way to define how we would begin to move forward on our quality journey in 2003
- Creation of the “Obligated Clinical Group” – in which everybody teaches and everybody learns. This is the strength behind Ascension’s clinical success as it brings together all of our skills, talents and gifts to benefit those we serve.
- Healing without Harm in 2009, an innovative approach that introduced the principles of high reliability to our healthcare system
- Zero preventable health outcome disparities, an effort we began in 2016
David also was instrumental in the creation of Ascension Clinical Holdings, which was designed to focus on building the infrastructure necessary for our caregivers to share their experiences with each other and learn from one another. He helped bring together the Ascension Clinical Integration Committee, which identified a standardized practice management system and a more standardized electronic health record. More recently he has led the Clinical Ministry-wide Function that has integrated many of the clinical initiatives across Ascension.
Thanks to David’s strong commitment to patient safety and clinical quality, we have reached unprecedented levels of success in becoming a truly high-reliable organization and eliminating serious safety events. This success under David’s leadership is well documented, as our approaches have spread to other health systems via the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and our participation in the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Partnership for Patients collaboration.
His leadership and influence on our clinical capabilities continue to be reflected in today’s work to reduce clinical variation as our caregivers continue to lead and learn from one another to craft the finest quality of care that we can provide to those we serve.
Prior to joining Ascension, David was Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer for Allina Health System in Minneapolis. Earlier he served as President of the New England Medical Center Hospitals in Boston.
David began his rise to prominence in clinical excellence at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina, where he served as a practicing cardiologist and director of the cardiology consultation service, the section of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, the Duke Database for Cardiovascular Disease, and clinical program development. In his 15 years at Duke, he chaired numerous committees including the Patient Care Subcommittee, the Duke University Heart Center Database Committee, the Quality Care Task Force and the Medical Center Computer Advisory Committee.
David has served on the editorial boards of the American Journal of Medical Quality, the American Journal of Managed Care, the International Journal of Cardiology, Cardiology Emergency Decisions, and as a reviewer for numerous other medical journals. He has authored more than 250 publications and has been the principal investigator of a number of significant research investigations.
A nationally and internationally respected physician leader, he also has participated on numerous committees including the Earnest Codman Awards Committee (JCAHO National Quality Awards, 1997-1999); The Advisory Council for Performance Measurement for the Joint Commission (1995-2003, chair 1998-2003), the national scientific session committees for the American Medical Informatics Association 2000 Spring Congress, the American College of Cardiology, 1991-92, and the American Heart Association, 1994-96. He recently rotated off the board of commissioners for the Joint Commission and is a member of the Board on Health Care Services of the Health and Medicine Division of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine and the Commonwealth Fund advisory board on delivery system reform.
He was listed as one of Modern Healthcare’s 100 Most Powerful Persons in Healthcare in 2002 and 2005, and as one of Modern Healthcare’s 50 most influential physician executives in 2005, 2006, 2008, 2012, 2013, 2016 and 2017. In 2005, he was honored at the 75th anniversary of the Duke University Heart Center as a lifetime scholar of the Barton Haynes Society. He received the CareScience Executive Leadership Award in 2006. In addition to his position at Ascension, David has held several academic appointments including Consulting Associate Professor of Medicine at Duke University Medical Center.
David is a graduate of the University of Michigan Medical School in Ann Arbor. He completed his medical internship and residency at Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia, and his fellowship in cardiovascular diseases at Duke.
“The people we serve across Ascension are better off thanks to the many contributions of Dr. David Pryor, a consummate professional, unparalleled servant leader, transformational talent and Mission-focused mentor,” Tony said. “I am grateful to him for his service and dedication to our health ministry.”
