Kaiser officially names Gregory Adams head of NorCal region
Kaiser Permanente officially dubbed Gregory Adams as president of its 3.3 million-enrollee Northern California region late Tuesday, effective immediately.
The San Francisco Business Times reported Feb. 15 that Kaiser would name Adams to replace Mary Ann Thode in the top regional job at its Kaiser Foundation Health Plan Inc. and Kaiser Foundation Hospitals, based on an announcement made internally at the Oakland-based health-care giant.
Adams, who has more than 25 years in senior level health-care executive and consulting jobs, had been the sprawling region's second in command for the last year, as associate regional president and COO. He joined Kaiser in 1999.
Bernard Tyson, executive vice president of Kaiser's national hospital and health plan operations, made the official announcement April 1, noting that Thode will continue to serve as national senior vice president of Kaiser's Office of the Labor Management Partnership "until her retirement."
Northern California is Kaiser's largest operating unit, accounting for nearly 4 in 10 of its 8.7 million nationwide enrollees. It runs 19 hospitals and 183 medical office buildings/clinics.
Tyson said Adams' appointment is the result of a planning process that began last year. "Greg is a tremendous leader with a thorough understanding of the health care field, and he is well positioned to succeed Mary Ann Thode in this important role," Tyson added in the April 1 statement no teletrak payday loans.
Adams started with Kaiser in Southern California, and has held leadership jobs in several regions, including Ohio and Hawaii. Prior to joining Kaiser, he ran a health-care consulting firm, and held senior jobs at St. Bernadine Medical Center in San Bernardino, Baptist Healthcare System of Southwest Texas, Catholic Healthcare West and the Mayo Clinic's St. Mary's Hospital in Rochester, Minn.
Thode — who said in January 2007 that she planned to retire by the end of that year or early this year, to spend more time with her husband and grandchildren — is instead staying on in the Labor Management Partnership role for an undefined period. Sources say Thode was asked by Kaiser Permanente Chairman and CEO George Halvorson to postpone her planned retirement so she could handle negotiations with participating LMP labor unions this summer, if both sides agree to renew the partnership.
The LMP, started in 1997 following a series of disruptive strikes, is Kaiser's mechanism to ensure peace by involving labor in some aspects of decision making. The Service Employees International Union is a major supporter of the effort, but Kaiser's other largest union in California, the California Nurses Association, has refused to participate.