Chief Financial Officer Ken Jensen will retire this month as will Jessica Jordan, the vice-president of nursing. Both are planned retirements, according to ValleyCare Chairman John Sensiba.
One of Jensen's goals in recent years has been to recruit and train up his successor. Vice-president of finance, Don Briones, will step in for Jensen.
These latest retirements, coupled with the departure of 15-year CEO Marcy Feit, is helping ValleyCare bring its books into order.
The hospital system has finished in the red for four years in a row—a trend that Sensiba said will end this year. The system needs to trim about $5 million, a number that seems large until you consider that it is only about 2 percent of the approximately $300 million budget.
The departure of the three executives will help account for about $2 million of that when total compensation is considered. Salaries of eight executives were trimmed by a total of $147,000 and the system also laid off 24 people last month to reduce overall expenses and bring them in with anticipated revenues.
Sensiba observed that the organization may have gotten a bit top-heavy with executives over the years and noted that the timing of the retirements was fortuitous and helped close the budget gap.
Moving forward with ObamaCare squeezing both hospitals and doctors to reduce costs, Sensiba said that the organization will continue to evolve and change to manage the challenges. It employs about 1,600 people and has 50 local physicians in its medical foundation.
He said that was delighted with what interim CEO Scott Gregerson has done in his first month on the job. Gregerson has been aggressively reaching out to employees and sharing all pertinent information. He certainly could be in the mix when the board decides on a replacement for Feit who served almost 15 years in that role.
