HCAD Alumni Updates - December 2019

In Remembrance

Ronald Morton ‘71 passed away on July 7, 2019. During his career, Ron spent 14 years in Yankton, South Dakota where he served as CEO at Sacred Heart Hospital. He then led YRMC in Yuma, Ariz. for nine years. After three years in Sedona and Flagstaff, Ariz. restructuring hospitals, he became CEO for Barton County Memorial Hospital in Lamar, Mo. where he retired in 1999.

Appointments and Promotions

Joe Davis-Fleming ’86 is now Regional Public Health Advisor/CDC Liaison to the US Pacific Islands of the Pacific Island Health Officers Association (PIHOA) based in Hawaii and Guam. Previously, Joe served as Program Coordinator with the State of Alaska-Health and Social Services Department/Public Assistance Division.

Mike McBride ’90 has been appointed regional president and chief operating officer of Ascension St. John in Tulsa, Okla.

Jason Johnson ’18 is vice president of Practice Partnerships of Prospira PainCare Inc. in McKinney, TX.

Hanna Batory ’16, M’18 recently transitioned to be HCA Gulf Coast Division's HR project coordinator.

Taylor Moen ’17 is the associate administrator at Hillcrest Hospital South in Tulsa, Okla. Hillcrest Hospital South is owned by Ardent Health Services.

Joe Sereno ’16 is CEO of Alamo Orthopedics. Alamo Orthopedics is a nine-provider orthopedic surgical practice.

Nathan Worley ’14 was promoted to market chief strategy officer in June 2019 over the entire Hospitals of Providence market in El Paso, Texas. The Hospitals of Providence are a member of Tenet Health.

Ryan Henry ’10, M’13 recently transitioned from HCA to working with GE Healthcare. He is an account executive based in the Houston market overseeing several hospitals in San Antonio and Corpus Christi, Texas.

Darshan Patel ’11 was recently named senior manager at PwC (PricewaterhouseCoopers).

Scott Rausch ’10 was named CEO of two of San Antonio’s Methodist Healthcare Northwest Side facilities—Methodist Texsan Hospital and Methodist Ambulatory Surgery Hospital.

Craig Desmond ’09 was appointed president of The Medical Center of Southeast Texas in Port Arthur. Craig previously served as president of The Medical Center of Southeast Texas in the early 2000s and oversaw its design and construction, which first opened in 2005. He was instrumental in the integration of hospital and staff operations from two distinct entities resulting in the hospital today—The Medical Center of Southeast Texas.

Andrea Duncan-Faz ’04 was promoted in June to vice president of Operations for the Ambulatory Division at Memorial Hermann Health System.

Jim Bohnsack ’97, M’99 has transitioned to chief revenue and strategy officer, TransUnion Healthcare at TransUnion.

Chad Fragle ’97 has been vice president for Network Development and Operations of Children’s Health System of Texas since 2014.

Scott Manis ’94 was named regional vice president with United Allergy Services.

Fred Goldstein ’84 has been appointed as an instructor (part-time/online program) at the John D. Bower School of Population Health at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, teaching in their Executive Master’s Degree program. Courses taught include ACO’s, Alternative Payment Models and Patient Generated Health Data/Patient Reported Outcomes. He has also been added to the Editorial Board of the journal Family and Community Health. In addition, he has some legislation before Congress that he co-developed and has been working on with Reyn Archer, MD, former commissioner of health in Texas and current chief of staff to Congressman Fortenberry and a colleague Doug Goldstein. H.R. 660, The Community Health Improvement and Leadership Development (CHILD) Act, is before the Health Committee of Energy and Commerce and has bi-partisan support. It would establish Community Shared Savings Account for Medicaid. HHS would publish all their data, and states would create dashboards of the top 20 Medicaid conditions in a community. The community would establish programs, and, if those programs resulted in savings, 70 percent of the savings would be placed in a community shared savings account overseen by a local board to further improve the health of the community.

Wayne Ogburn ’74 is now practicing real estate in Hot Springs, Ark. He is half owner of Rainbow Realty, Inc. Wayne’s last hospital job was CEO of Pondera Medical Center in Conrad, Mont.

Stan Hupfeld ’72 is currently the chairman of the board of the Oklahoma Health Care Authority, which is the state agency responsible for administrating Medicaid in Oklahoma.

Achievements and Recognition

Dianna Burns-Banks, MD ’00 was honored at the San Antonio Chamber Tribute to Women Business Leaders awards, recognizing an outstanding women from all facets of our community. Presented by the Ford Motor Company, 2019 marked the 12th of this event. Dianna is owner of South Texas Center for Pediatric Care in San Antonio, Texas. As a lasting legacy, the Chamber and Ford set aside $1,000 scholarships in the name of each honoree to a college or university of the honoree’s choice. This year, donations will be made to the State Representative Ruth Jones McClendon Scholarship Fund at St. Philip’s College, in honor of Dr. Dianna Burns-Banks.

Retirements

Cynthia Nechay Buniski ’85 retired from a full time position with the Aspen Institute in June of 2018. She is living in South Florida and selling real estate with a wonderful boutique firm called Florida Luxurious Properties.

Ted Fox ’80, M’82 is officially retired but is organizing and presenting patient safety conversations and dialogues for Trinity University and St. Mary's University pre-med students. Ted lives in San Antonio, Texas, and serves as board vice president for Texas Doctors for Social Responsibility.

William “Bill” Johnson ’76 retired in 2015 and is living in Florence, Alabama. He enjoys golf and travel to include frequent visits to see his granddaughter. He relates that he is also trying his hand in writing but with no luck.

Don Wilkerson ’76. After more than 43 years of leadership in the health care industry, with 40 of those years in service to HCA Healthcare and more than 20 years at St. David’s HealthCare in Austin, Texas, Wilkerson retired as chief executive officer of St. David’s Medical Center on February 28, 2019. Don served as chief executive officer of St. David’s Medical Center since 2011, and prior to that, he served for 13 years as chief executive officer at St. David’s North Austin Medical Center. Under Don’s leadership, both of these hospitals experienced significant growth and received numerous national accolades. During Don’s tenure at St. David’s Medical Center, the consolidated entity, which also includes Heart Hospital of Austin and St. David’s Georgetown Hospital, was named by IBM Watson Health (formerly known as Truven Health Analytics) among the nation’s 100 Top  Hospitals for nine consecutive years and among the 50 Top Cardiovascular Hospitals in the U.S. for four years. It was also recognized by Healthgrades as one of America’s 100 Best Hospitals for four years in a row and earned an “A” safety grade rating from The Leapfrog Group every year since they launched the Hospital Safety Score initiative in 2012. These accolades don’t come easily. They are the result of hard work and a steadfast commitment to exceptional patient care. And it’s that same commitment that led to the growth of the hospital and the continued expansion of numerous programs and services at St. David’s Medical Center, including the recent addition of the 24-bed ICU, as well as the electrophysiology center expansion. During his tenure at St. David’s North Austin Medical Center, the facility experienced tremendous growth, increasing its capacity from 126 beds to 332 beds. Don oversaw such milestones as the development of the North Austin Surgery Center, St. David’s Women’s Center of Texas, Texas Institute for Robotic Surgery and the St. David’s Emergency Center in Pflugerville. Under his leadership, St. David’s North Austin Medical Center achieved high levels of performance in quality measures, patient and physician satisfaction and employee engagement. As a result of Don’s leadership abilities in hospital operations and business development and his strong physician and staff relations skills, St. David’s Medical Center and St. David’s North Austin Medical Center became two of the region’s leading medical centers.