WARWICK – After an “extensive national search,” a new president and CEO has been named for Kent Hospital: Sandra L. Coletta, a senior administrator in the Lifespan system since 1994 and most recently chief operating officer for The Miriam Hospital in Providence.
Coletta, of Johnston, will succeed Mark E. Crevier, a longtime administrator in the Care New England system who took the helm at Kent in September 2005, while then-CEO Dr. Robert Baute recovered from surgery, and was named Baute’s successor in April 2006.
Crevier announced in March that he would retire Oct. 15. Coletta will start at Kent at the beginning of October, and the two “will work together to help assure a seamless transition of office,” the hospital said in a news release.
Coletta will join Kent at a challenging time. The hospital lost $8.98 million from operations in fiscal 2007, which ended Sept. 30, despite aggressive efforts to cut costs by reducing some executives’ and doctors’ pay and closing two outpatient offices, among other moves. Officials have said they expect another loss this year, but a smaller one, and a positive margin in 2009.
Kent is also at a transition point because of the proposed merger of its parent company, Care New England, with Lifespan, which was first announced more than a year ago, but has been delayed due to issues that have arisen in the state regulatory review process.
And last month, Kent became a teaching hospital, if only on a small scale, accepting its first residents in family practice and emergency medicine from the University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine.
In the news release, Crevier said Coletta “joins a great hospital,” and that he would “do everything I can to get her off on the right start and to help assure her success at Kent.”
At Miriam, Coletta is responsible for the management of all day-to-day activities, and she has “amassed a tremendous breadth of experience in virtually every area of strategic, clinical and operational leadership,” according to the Kent news release.
She is also credited with playing a key role in efforts to improve patient satisfaction, to establish a new mission statement, to develop system-wide quality indicators and a quality reporting system, and to achieve Magnet status for the Miriam three times – a recognition of the hospital’s desirability as a place for nurses to work.
Previously, Coletta has served as senior vice president of system integration for Lifespan, chief operating officer for the Lifespan Physicians PSO, and senior vice president of managed care for Lifespan. She has the rank of senior vice president at Lifespan.
Coletta has an MBA in management from Bryant University and a B.S. in accounting from Providence College.
“We are excited to have Sandy join our great team of dedicated health care professionals, said Care New England President and CEO John J. Hynes in the release. “We feel confident she is the ideal candidate to help us carry out our vitally important mission in the years to come.”
More than 50 candidates from across the nation were considered in the selection process, hospital officials said.
Care New England Health System is a nonprofit health care system with 6,439 employees, 1,519 physicians, 613 licensed beds and 162 infant bassinets as of 2006. Founded in 1996 by Butler Hospital, Kent Hospital and Women & Infants Hospital, it has grown to include Care New England Home Health and one Care New England Wellness Center. To learn more, visit www.carenewengland.org.
