Memorial Health Systems names CEO

   Dr. Larry McEvoy will take over May 31 as Memorial Health System's chief executive officer, with an annual salary of $550,000.

   The job was offered to Mc-Evoy on Saturday by the system's board of trustees, and he accepted after brief negotiations.

   McEvoy has been chief medical officer for the city-owned health system since Oct. 1 and interim CEO since mid-January, when Dick Eitel announced his retirement date.

   "I look forward to being here at mile marker No. 1 and moving down the road to the quality of health care patients deserve," said McEvoy, previously an emergency room doctor.

   McEvoy, 42, said a priority at Memorial will be filling four executive team slots. The chief operating officer, chief financial officer, chief medical officer and chief nursing officer are open positions.

   "If you look at health care as a team sport, and you look at team function as highly skilled leadership, that's a job that starts right now," McEvoy said.

   After a nationwide search in March for a CEO, the trustees interviewed six finalists last week. The list was narrowed to two contenders, McEvoy and Bruce Gordon, director of Central Texas Veterans Healthcare System, said Curtis Brown, chairman of the CEO search committee.

   Brown said McEvoy's leadership skills, vision and ability to work with the hospital system's 4,800 partand full-time employees, along with board and City Council members, stood out among the 100 applicants.

   "He's very smart and talented," Brown said. "What it really got down to was that we thought Larry had a concise vision that matched with the board on where the hospital needs to go. He wants us to be the best health care system in Colorado Springs, if not the best in Colorado. He wants it to be physician-led, with the goal of giving the best care that we can to our patients."

   McEvoy, who received his medical degree from Stanford University, said his concept of physician leadership involves doctors helping to develop health care strategy in concert with other leadership.

   McEvoy previously worked as medical director of clinical operations at Billings Clinic, a regional system in Montana that included a clinic, a hospital and a nursing home, where McEvoy said he was on a "CEO track." He also worked as a health care consultant in leadership design and organizational performance.

   Brown said that although McEvoy's only CEO experience is his short interim role at Memorial, he has demonstrated a talent to lead.

   "He has a fast learning curve and understands health care. He has worked as a physician, which is a huge plus for us. When it comes to operations and finances, we'll have those staff members in place for those roles," Brown said.

   McEvoy's salary, an increase of more than $100,000 from predecessor Eitel's annual salary of $444,412, is competitive, Brown said.

   "We felt we had to have a competitive salary to attract the right person," Brown said. "Even with what we're offering, we're paying less than what other CEOs are getting to run hospitals."

   Studies by Hay Group, Sullivan Center and Watson Wyatt show the annual salary market median ranges from $575,325 to $691,912, based on 2007 data from comparably sized organizations with annual revenues of $400 million to $900 million and 2,000 to 5,000 employees.

   Memorial's annual budget for this year is $646.4 million.

   McEvoy has four sons, ages 13, 10, 5 and 3. His personal interests include biodiversity, coaching and horsemanship.

CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0235 or debbie.kelley@gazette.com