Brumsted to retire as president and CEO of UVM Health Network
Dr. John Brumsted will retire in September as president and chief executive officer of the University of Vermont Health Network, a position he has held since the Network was founded in 2011, according to a news release.
The network includes UVM Medical Center in Burlington; Central Vermont Medical Center in Berlin; and Porter Medical Center in Middlebury; as well as Alice Hyde Medical Center in Malone, New York; Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital in Plattsburgh, New York; and Elizabethtown Community Hospital in Elizabethtown, New York.
Brumsted worked for more than four decades as a physician and health care executive. He specialized in obstetrics and gynecology in rural Northern New York and at the University of Vermont Medical Center, before being named as president and chief executive officer of what was then Fletcher Allen Health Care, now UVM Medical Center.
"It is such an honor to be part of health care in Vermont and northern New York," Brumsted said in a news release. "We have experienced and accomplished so much together, and we created something new — an integrated health care system — to respond to the needs of the patients we are so privileged to serve. We have faced many challenges, and there is no doubt that there will be more challenges in the future."
Brumsted's total compensation in 2020 was $1.99 million, according to the Green Mountain Care Board.
Surviving a 'perfect storm'
Brumsted led the Health Network through the daunting challenge presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, announcing in May 2020 the Network was facing "staggering revenue losses" of about $152 million for the year because of the pandemic, triggering salary cuts and a hiring freeze.
In March 2021, the UVM Health Network announced it had lost $21.3 million since the fiscal year began six months earlier, a consequence of the pandemic as well as other factors like a crippling cyberattack the previous fall.
Last September, Brumsted distributed an op-ed in which he said UVM Medical Center was seeing a new surge of cases from the highly contagious COVID-19 Delta variant, creating a "perfect storm" of patients and putting extreme pressure on health care workers.
"Our patients come to us when they need us most, and long wait times for certain kinds of care are an added stress," Brumsted wrote. "This 'perfect storm' has also placed a heavy burden on our health system's dedicated physicians, providers and staff. Hospitals across the country are experiencing the same challenges."
National search underway
The UVM Health Network announced an "Access Action Plan" in October 2021 that is intended to "improve the patient experience and increase access to health care services." The plan has three main goals:
Retain talent and hire successfully amid national staffing shortages.
Reduce wait times for specialty care.
Improve hospital inpatient and emergency capacity.
Brumsted said in a news release on Thursday that he is confident the UVM Health Network "will continue to innovate and improve the way we serve and advance the health of our patients and our communities, now and into the future."
A national search is underway to find a successor for Brumsted before he retires on Sept. 30. The search committee will be led by UVM Health Network Board Chair Allie Stickney.
Contact Dan D’Ambrosio at 660-1841 or ddambrosio@freepressmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @DanDambrosioVT. This coverage is only possible with support from our readers.
This article originally appeared on Burlington Free Press: Brumsted retires: leader of UVM Health Network leaves in September
