Roxborough boss Donnelly moves on (Update)
CFO Tony Esposito has replaced John D. Donnelly as the hospital's chief executive
UPDATE with comments from investor Souiad: John D. "Jack" Donnelly is out as chief executive of Roxborough Memorial Hospital, staffers were told in a meeting last night.
Chief financial officer Tony Esposito has taken over Donnelly's job. "The timing was right for him and his family," Esposito told me. "He'd been here 29 years."
Donnelly wasn the architect of Roxborough's attempt to convert from a struggling nonprofit hospital to a for-profit chain institution. He presided over Roxborough's 2002 sale to the for-profit Tenet Healthcare chain; when Tenet wanted out in 2007, Donnelly headed the management team set up by Robert Souaid and other investors in purchasing the institution for their company, Solis Health Care. "We've been talking about this for about a year," Souaid added.
"It was not based on the performance of the hospital. The time is right for Jack," he said. "We are doing well in a tough environment." Patient count was down this summer, but not more than other hospitals, and "we are seeing a much calmer fall. We are feeling very confident about the future." The hospital has added women's digital imaging equipment, and this fall will double emergency room to over 10,000 square feet, with a $500,000 Pennsylvania state grant. "Roxborough is and will remain an acute care hospital for these communities."
That deal also included Tenet's Warminster Hospital. Warminster was sold later that year to Abington Memorial, one of the Philadelphia area's more vigorous independent healthcare groups.
Roxborough, a 141-bed facility on Ridge Ave. employs 650, and has 200 doctors. More on the Solis deal..