Dive Brief:
- Denver Health CEO Arthur Gonzalez said he will retire June 30, leaving behind several major initiatives that he had set in motion, Becker’s Hospital Review reported.
- In April, the health system is set to launch a $175 million Epic EHR system. Also set to go live soon is a $27 million, 4,500-square-foot clinic in southwest Denver.
- Gonzalez said he was not pressured to leave, but was retiring for personal reasons.
Dive Insight:
Gonzalez joined Denver Health as CEO in the fall of 2012, helping to guide the health system through the early years of the Affordable Care Act. However, in a recent interview with the Denver Business Journal, Gonzalez acknowledged difficulties making ends meet with a patient base that is only 10% privately insured, the Denver newspaper reported.
Recently, Gonzalez has also had to contend with the departure of some key employees of Denver Health, including the chief of surgery CMO.
The announcement comes just weeks after the CMIO of New York City Health + Hospitals resigned, citing problems with the implementation of an Epic EHR. The health system’s CEO, Ramanathan Raju, later denied he was under pressure to meet an April 1 launch date.
Denver Health’s former CIO, Gregory Veltri, resigned in October 2013 over concerns that implementing Epic’s EHR could cost the health system $300 million, Becker’s said. Gonzalez disputed that estimate, saying it was within its $170 million budget.
In 2014, Epic posted the largest net increase of new hospitals among nine vendors reviewed by KLAS.