Timothy McQuiston Vermont Business Magazine Fletcher Allen Health Care announced today that it has appointed Eileen Whalen, MHA, RN, to the position of president and chief operating officer effective early 2015. The appointment was made following a national search. Whalen will report to John Brumsted, MD, who will retain the position of chief executive officer at Fletcher Allen as well as his position as president and chief executive officer of Fletcher Allen Partners, the four-hospital integrated health network serving Vermont and northern New York. Whalen’s position combines the role of president with that of the chief operating officer.
“Eileen brings considerable experience both as a nurse and senior health care administrator to Fletcher Allen,” Brumsted said. “For the past two-and-a-half years, I have had joint responsibility for leading both Fletcher Allen and Fletcher Allen Partners. As Partners grows in complexity I need to turn my focus more towards leading the network. I am placing the oversight of Fletcher Allen Health Care in good hands.
“I’m especially pleased,” Brumsted said, “that we will have a highly-qualified clinical team led by Eileen, a nationally-recognized trauma nurse, and our UVM Medical Group President, Claude Deschamps, MD, a prominent surgeon, guiding the day-to-day operations and business functions of our academic medical center.”
Whalen has more than 35 years of experience in health care. She comes to Fletcher Allen from Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, WA, where she served as the chief executive.
Brumsted said that he was looking for someone with experience at an academic medical center, who also had a clinical background and was someone who had worked at a hospital "of equivalent size" to FAHC. Whalen has much experience as a trauma care nurse.Harborview is associated with the University of Washington and is that state's largest public hospital. It reportedgross patient revenue in 2013 of $1.7 billion, whileFAHC's gross patient revenue in 2013 was$2.3 billion. FAHC is affiliated with the University of Vermont.
“My husband and I are looking forward to our move to Burlington and I am excited to be joining the talented team at Fletcher Allen,” stated Whalen. “I’m looking forward to leading an organization that is so well-positioned to thrive in this rapidly-changing health care environment.”
Harborview is an academic medical center part of the UW Medicine Network. Harborview is nationally known for trauma care and serves as the only Level 1 adult and pediatric trauma and burn center for the states of Washington, Alaska, Montana and Idaho.
Whalen resigned fromHarborviewlast February. She said the hospital was moving in a different strategic direction and she felt it was time for her to move on as well.
Whalen said the process of interviewing at Fletcher Allen took a few months and she accepted the position here over two others about 10 days ago.
"My interest really was Fletcher Allen and the academic medical center," Whalen said. She said the emphasis on quality and patient safety were important to her as well as the shared mission and values.
"I feel lucky and I feel quite honored," she said.
Even though it is unusual for a nurse to have such a leadership position, "It makes great sense and it's becoming more common," she said. "Nurses are well positioned to look at the entire continuum of health care."
And while she won't be taking shifts in the ER, she said she will continue to stay connected to the clinical side of the business.
"What drives my passion is to be able to round with patients and staff," Whalen said, "It's so important to stay involved."
Brumsted said the fact that she had quit her job at Harborview "didn't make any difference to us at all." He added, "It's our great fortune that she was available and wanted to come East."
Prior to taking the position at Harborview, she served as executive vice president at the University of Arizona Medical Center, Tucson, AZ. Whalen has also held numerous leadership positions in trauma, emergency and critical care services. She is a nationally recognized trauma systems expert and a founding member and past president of the Society of Trauma Nurses. Whalen also served as editor, Journal of Trauma Nursing from 1993-2006.
Whalen is a graduate of Niagara University, Niagara Falls, NY, where she received a Bachelor’s of Science in Nursing. She also holds a Master in Health and Hospital Administration degree from Chapman University, Sacramento, CA.
She and her husband, Robert Heilig, have been in the cattle ranching business. She said she enjoys riding horses and skiing. Whalen expects to have found a home by the end of the year and start at Fletcher Allen soon after.
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About Fletcher Allen
Fletcher Allen Health Care, together with our partners at the University of Vermont College of Medicine and the College of Nursing and Health Sciences, is Vermont’s academic medical center. Fletcher Allen, along with Central Vermont Medical Center, CVPH Medical Center and Elizabethtown Community Hospital, are members of Fletcher Allen Partners, established to develop a more coordinated system of care throughout the region. Fletcher Allen also serves as a regional referral center -- providing advanced care to approximately one million people in Vermont and northern New York -- and as a community hospital for approximately 150,000 residents in Chittenden and Grand Isle counties. For more information about Fletcher Allen, find us online at http://www.fletcherallen.org or on our Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and blog sites at www.fletcherallen.org/socialmedia.