Page 12 - Mecklenburg_Medicine_April-2016

At the Hospitals
n CHS Appoints Eugene A. Woods
President and CEO
The Board of Commissioners of Carolinas
HealthCare System (CHS) has appointed
Eugene A. Woods as president and chief
executive officer, effective
April 28. Previously, Mr.
Woods, 51, served as president
and chief operating officer of
CHRISTUS Health, based in
Eugene A.Woods Irving, Texas. He succeeds
Michael C. Tarwater, CEO since 2002.
Tarwater announced his retirement in June
2015 and will remain with CHS until June
30, 2016 to ensure a seamless transition.
Woods brings to CHS 24 years of
healthcare leadership experience. He
recently was elected the next chairman of
the American Hospital Association and will
assume that role in 2017.
At CHRISTUS Health, which has more
than 50 hospitals and long-term care facilities,
175 clinics and outpatient centers, and 30,000
associates, Woods, who is fluent in Spanish,
was responsible for overseeing acute, post-acute
and international operations for its facilities in Center and began service in February.
the United States, Mexico and Chile.
Prior to that, Woods served in dual roles
at Catholic Health Initiatives as CEO of the
eight-hospital Saint Joseph Health System
and as senior vice president responsible
for helping implement national initiatives
for the organization which operates in 18
states. He also previously served as COO of
the Washington Hospital Center, a 968-bed
teaching hospital in Washington, D.C.
“Gene is a proven leader with extraordinary
experience,” says Edward J. Brown III,
chairman of the Board of Commissioners.
“We know he is the right person to lead
Carolinas HealthCare System as we continue
our journey as one of the leading healthcare
systems in the nation, providing incredible
care to all of the communities we serve.”
Carolinas HealthCare System and its
more than 60,000 full-time and part-time
employees provide care through more than
11.5 million patient encounters per year
through an integrated network of more
12 | April 2016 • Mecklenburg Medicine
than 900 care locations in North and South
Carolina, including 39 hospitals and more
than 200 primary care locations. It has
been recognized for providing access to
coordinated, high-quality care on a large
scale through nationally renowned clinical
quality and IT programs.
“The Board of Commissioners is
extremely grateful to Michael Tarwater for
his outstanding contribution over more than
35 years at Carolinas HealthCare System,”
says Brown. “During his tenure as CEO,
he has led this organization to remarkable
success in providing extraordinary care,
and he has overseen the establishment of
landmark clinical services, including Levine
Children’s Hospital and Levine Cancer
Institute. There will be more occasions in
the future to thank him and recognize his
extraordinary service.”
n Carolinas Medical Center Hires
New CMO
Gary Little, MD, MBA, has been named
chief medical officer at Carolinas Medical
As CMO, he will partner with Eugene
Christian, MD, chief medical officer of
CMC-Mercy. Together they will be
responsible for medical staff interactions
and initiatives, as well as oversight of all
quality and patient safety work through the
unified license of the Carolinas HealthCare
System Central Division.
Since 2009, Dr. Little has served as the
medical director for George Washington
University Hospital, a Level I Trauma center
and academic hospital. There, he oversaw
the medical staff leadership, regulatory
compliance, accreditation and quality
improvement programs. Little also worked
closely with the school of medicine and faculty
practice for graduate medical education. Prior
to that post, he was the chair of emergency
medicine at Prince George’s Hospital Center
in Virginia.
Little earned his bachelor of arts from
Occidental College, his medical degree from
Harvard Medical School and his master
of business administration from George
Washington University. He also has the
honor of being a Howard Hughes Medical
Institute Research Fellow. Little completed his reading their new books right away. A Smart
residency in Emergency Medicine at George
Washington University and is a diplomate
and board certified by the American Board of
Emergency Medicine.
n CMC-Biddle Point Relaunches
Reading and School Readiness
Program
Research shows that reading aloud is one
of the most important things parents can do
to help their children succeed in school and
in life. Yet many children have little or no
access to books at home, and as a result,
many of them enter kindergarten already
lagging behind their peers.
Nneka Hendrix, MD, and the other
providers at CMC-Biddle Point aim to
change that. They have just relaunched
Reach Out & Read, a program providing
age-appropriate books to all children ages 6
months through 5 years, at the start of each
well-visit.
“Parents who read aloud to their children
are giving them a huge developmental
head start,” says Dr. Hendrix, designated
physician champion for Reach Out & Read
at Biddle Point. “This program helps us get
books into their hands and impress upon
parents that reading is just as critical to their
children’s development as immunizations
and good nutrition.”
Reach Out & Read has been in place
and thriving at CMC-NorthPark and CMC-
Myers Park Pediatrics for years. The program
at Myers Park is one of the top 10 percent in
the nation and often is used as an example
site to show donors how the program works.
State Sen. Jeff Jackson recently visited
CMC-NorthPark to highlight the program
and its positive impact on patient outcomes
and the community.
Relaunch of the program was made
possible by a new partnership with Smart
Start, a public/private partnership designed
to improve school readiness, and the
donation of 1,500 books from Promising
Pages, a Charlotte nonprofit that distributes
gently-used books to at-risk children.
As part of the relaunch at CMC-Biddle
Point, Smart Start provided grant funding to
create new cozy and inviting reading corners
to encourage children and parents to start
Start literacy coordinator also helps keep the
program running at full speed to serve the
CMC-Biddle Point patient population, which
has a high percentage of Medicaid patients.