On July 28, the Geisinger Health System Foundation Board of Directors announced that Glenn Steele, Jr., M.D., president and CEO of the Danville, Pa.-based integrated health system, will be retiring in June 2015, after a tenure of nearly 14 years. Steele joined Geisinger on March 2001, bringing the organization to prominence in the U.S. healthcare industry as a pioneer in the areas of patient safety, care quality, evidence-based care, and value-based care delivery and payment. Steele was instrumental in the conceptualization of Geisinger’s renowned ProvenCare program, which has combined evidence-based and consensus-driven clinical pathways and guidelines with a number of pricing guarantees.
“This is a planned and expected process to ensure that we take the time necessary to identify Geisinger’s next leader,” Geisinger board chairman William Alexander said in a statement in the July 28 press release. “Dr. Steele has done an incredible job of leading and growing the health system, as well as expanding innovative healthcare services for Geising’ers patients and members. We are thrilled that he will continue as chairman of xG Health Solutions,” an independently operated venture based in Columbia, Md., that helps healthcare organizations create value and improve quality, and which is the “primary provider of Geisigner’s Healthcare Performance Improvement Intellectual Property,” as described in the press release.. Dr. Steele will leave Geisinger next June, as the organization’s fiscal year concludes, and will transition over to xG Health Solutions at that time.
“During his tenure at Geisinger,” the press release noted, “the health system has grown into a nationally and internationally respected organization that is at the forefront of the transformation of United States health care through its advanced use of the electronic health record and the development and implementation of innovative care models.”
Prior to his arrival at Geisinger, Dr. Steele had worked at the University of Chicago, “where he served as the Richard T. Crane Professor in the Department of Surgery, Vice President for Medical Affairs, and Dean of the Division of Biological Sciences and the Pritzker School of Medicine. Prior to that,” the press release noted, “he was the William V. McDermott Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School, President and Chief Executive Officer of Deaconess Professional Practice Group and Chairman of the Department of Surgery at New England Deaconess Hospital.”
Geisinger Health System, a physician-led integrated health services organization, serves more than 2.6 million residents across 44 counties in central Pennsylvania. It encompasses seven hospital campuses, two research centers, 20,800 employees, and a 448,000-member health plan.
