Copley Hospital has appointed Joseph Woodin, who served as the top executive at Gifford Medical Center for 16 years, as its new CEO.
Woodin will take the helm at the Morrisville hospital in mid October.
Before he served as president and CEO at Gifford Medical Center in Randolph from 1999 to 2016, he held leadership positions at Central Vermont Medical Center and the University of Vermont Medical Center.
During his time at Gifford, the medical center saw its revenues increase by 600% and major expansions including the acquisition of new service lines and seven clinical sites, according to a statement released by Copley officials Monday.
“What really set Joe apart from the very beginning, was his impressive history of helping hospitals achieve solid financial performance; his willingness to embrace innovative approaches to the healthcare challenges facing smaller, rural hospitals; and his depth of leadership experience working within Vermont’s unique regulatory environment,” Carl Szlachetka, the chair of the Copley Health Systems board of trustees, wrote in a press release Tuesday.
Woodin was most recently CEO at South Peninsula Hospital in Homer, Alaska, from February 2018 to April 2019, when he resigned abruptly citing “unanticipated circumstances,” according to the Homer News.
In June 2017, Woodin was fired suddenly from Martha’s Vineyard Hospital in Massachusetts, after 13 months as CEO.
At the time, Woodin told The Randolph Herald that he wasn’t given a reason for his dismissal and blamed Martha’s Vineyard “island politics.”
In March 2018, the hospital sued Woodin, alleging he was in default of a $250,000 promissory note he signed with the medical center in January 2017. At the time, the Martha’s Vineyard Times [reported] that while Woodin was supposed to pay back $50,000 per year, plus interest, the hospital alleged he had paid it nothing.
Woodin said that he was fired after chair of the hospital’s board made the decision to terminate him. Woodin declined to speak on the record about what led the chair at the time, Timothy Sweet, to come to that decision.
But he said that in mediation outside of court, the hospital settled with him, after Woodin alleged he had been wrongfully terminated. The Martha’s Vineyard Gazette reported that Sweet allegedly fired Woodin to protect his wife, who worked at the hospital and had come under criticism for poor job performance.
“His reasoning for the termination did not appear to be justified, such that they wrote me a check,” Woodin said, referring to the board chair.
The hospital also dropped the lawsuit it had filed against him during the mediation process, which ended in fall 2018.
Woodin said he left the hospital in Alaska when it became clear the medical center was looking for a CEO to stay there long term. Woodin had plans to return to Vermont to be closer to family.
Woodin’s appointment comes as Copley, like many small rural hospitals in Vermont, faces financial struggles that stem from challenges including an aging population and trouble maintaining a medical workforce.
In its proposed 2020 budget submitted to the Green Mountain Care Board this summer, the hospital projects losing $1.2 million by the end of the current fiscal year.
Its proposed budget also includes a nearly 10% rate increase for consumers — the highest of any hospital this year.
Copley attributed much of its losses to an increase in the number of services covered by Medicare, which reimburses hospitals at a lower rate than commercial insurers.
It also said it lost revenue after a prominent orthopedic surgeon took medical leave this year.
In an interview Tuesday, Woodin declined to discuss his specific plans to address Copley’s financial challenges. But he noted that they’re not unique to the Morrisville hospital, and are faced by others in Vermont and around the country.
“What we can control is our organization and how well we perform and thankfully these challenges are ubiquitous and they’re in front of all rural Vermont hospitals,” Woodin said.
“We’ve just got to stick to the knitting, do a good job, hopefully be at the table with some suggestions,” he said. “But I don’t think that the Vermont health care system is so fragile that it will start to fall apart.”
Woodin said that after spending time in Alaska, he had been looking to move back to Vermont to be closer to family.
Update: This article was updated on Sept. 4 at 5:55 p.m. with Woodin’s remarks on his jobs at hospitals in Alaska and on Martha’s Vineyard.
