Johnson named to head Forum

Other top members of Forum’s new management team are Kevin Spiegel, head of TMH, and Lisa Medovich, chief financial officer.

By WILLIAM K. ALCORN

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

YOUNGSTOWN — Lowell Johnson, interim executive vice president and chief operating officer at Northside Medical Center, will become president and chief executive officer of Forum Health and the Western Reserve Care System, effective March 1.

He will replace Dr. Keith Ghezzi, who has been interim president and CEO during a two-year financial turnaround effort by the hospital system.

Johnson has 37 years of experience in various health care related endeavors, and has been a turnaround CEO or chief operations officer for 25 hospitals and/or health systems during the past 19 years.

The change in leadership was announced by the new president of the Forum Health Board of Trustees, Parry L. Hesselman, who thanked Dr. Ghezzi on behalf of the board for guiding the system through a challenging turnaround.

Other members of the new management team and their positions:

UKevin Spiegel, who will remain as president and chief operating officer of Trumbull Memorial Hospital in Warren.

ULisa Medovich, chief financial officer and senior vice president of Forum Health and the Western Reserve Care System. She was formerly vice president of finance and corporate controller.

Dr. Ghezzi said he is leaving “by mutual consent” at the end of his current contract Feb. 29.

In a letter to the Forum Health community, Hesselman said that while “much of the hard work of our turnaround is behind us, the board is committed to sustaining this recovery and making necessary investments in our facilities, technology and people.

“To do so in a difficult economy, and with the continued burden of debt, will require innovation and inspiration. As always, we count on the leadership, physicians and employees of our hospitals to promote the healing environment and culture of caring that Forum Health represents,” Hesselman said.

Dr. Ghezzi said the credit for Forum’s progress and achievements goes “not to me or any of the experts and consultants that the board brought in to help manage the process, but to the people of Forum, who have done extraordinary things under extremely difficult circumstances.”

Dr. Ghezzi said he has worked at several hospitals, many rich in resources. But at Forum he said saw another kind of wealth: “That of a proud history, a true commitment to community, a spirit of perseverance and a tradition of caring unmatched anywhere.”

The change in leadership comes on the heels of encouraging financial news that Forum is on track to record an operating profit for the second year running.

After several years of operating at a loss, and paying $11 million to a financial turnaround consulting firm, Forum reported it had an operating profit of $16.6 million through the end of October. Company officials said the health care system experienced a $23.7 million operating loss in 2005.

Attempts to sell Forum were recently suspended, but not before it sold Beeghly Oaks, a long-term care facility, and Beeghly Medical Park, both in Boardman. The remaining major components of Forum Health are Northside Medical Center in Youngstown, TMH, and Hillside Rehabilitation Hospital in Howland.

alcorn@vindy.com