New President & CEO Named at Regional Health Following Dismissal of Previous President
Rapid City, SD. – Changes are in motion at the top of Regional Health, which operates five hospitals and 24 clinics in Western South Dakota. On Wednesday, the Regional Health Board of Directors issued a press release, stating that Paulette Davidson, had been named Acting President and Chief Executive Officer of Regional Health. Previous president and CEO, Brent Phillips, departed the role effective on Tuesday evening following a unanimous vote by the board of directors, over what was reportedly a personnel issue.
Phillips, who had been heading Regional Health since 2015, had a year left on his contract prior to stepping down. In April 2017 nearly 100 members of the medical staff at Rapid City Regional Hospital gave a vote of no-confidence to Phillips, calling for his removal, though sources say that played no role in his departure on Tuesday.
As for Davidson, she has been with Regional Health since 2015, serving as Regional Health Chief Operating Officer, as well as President of the Rapid City Hospital and the Rapid City market. Prior to joining Regional Health, Davidson built a track record of developing high performing teams, partnering with medical staff and improving clinical programs. She previously held executive roles with Nebraska Medicine (Omaha, Nebraska), Cancer Treatment Centers of America (Arlington Heights, Illinois) and Indiana University Health Goshen Hospital (Goshen, Indiana).
“On behalf of the board, I want to thank Brent for guiding Regional Health to this point,” said Lia Green, Chair of the Regional Health Board of Directors. “We have great confidence in Paulette, along with our current leadership team, excellent providers and dedicated caregivers to lead Regional Health into the next era of community health care. In addition, we are committed to working with the communities we serve to meet the health care needs of the Black Hills and beyond.”
Davidson’s leadership highlights since joining Regional Health include initiating $350 million in construction to expand and enhance primary care, emergency services, hospital bed capacity, as well as additional development of specialty care in orthopedics, surgical services and heart and vascular care. Her teams implemented Epic, a single electronic health record for the system. She has also led caregiver and medical staff engagement programs leading to improving patient satisfaction performance across the health system.
