Top executives leaving Ascension Wisconsin as part of hospital leadership shakeup, amid major concerns about patient care
The head of Ascension Wisconsin is leaving his position amid a major leadership shakeup at the hospital system, after some of its Milwaukee hospitals came under fire for staffing shortages that doctors and others said were threatening patient care.
Bernie Sherry, a senior vice president of Ascension Health who has overseen the Wisconsin market since 2016, will be out of his role "later this spring," according to a memo sent Tuesday to Ascension Wisconsin staff. A search is underway for his replacement.
Other Ascension Wisconsin leaders leaving their positions this week include: Monica Hilt, chief operating officer; Marcia Lysaght, chief nursing officer; Beth O'Laire, market chief human resources executive; and Caryn Kaufman, the director of communications.
In recent months, Ascension Wisconsin has cut services at some Milwaukee hospitals and struggled to keep staffing at proper levels, prompting protests from hospital workers, scrutiny from Milwaukee Common Council members and demands for answers from U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin.
The memo also announced that a new interim president and CEO, Daniel Jackson, was chosen to lead Ascension Columbia St. Mary's Hospital in Milwaukee. John Joyce will remain the president of Ascension Columbia St. Mary's Hospital in Mequon, the memo said.
The hospital presidency had previously been shared between the two Columbia St. Mary's campuses in Milwaukee and Mequon. They were split to "best enable greater operational and clinical focus" at the two hospitals, the memo said.
New hospital executive worked in Detroit
Jackson was last the CEO of Detroit Medical Center's Sinai-Grace Hospital in Detroit, until he left that position about a year ago, the Detroit News reported last year. That hospital is owned by a for-profit hospital chain that has been the subject of complaints by Detroit Medical Center doctors and nurses for alleged cost-cutting measures and low staffing levels, according to the Detroit News.
Other leadership changes include a new interim chief operating officer, Duke Walker, at Columbia St. Mary's Hospital in Milwaukee, according to the memo.
A search is underway for a new chief nursing officer for Columbia St. Mary's in Milwaukee.
An Ascension Wisconsin spokesperson did not answer questions about the specific reasons for the departures or the terms on which hospital leadership is leaving. Instead, the spokesperson directed reporters to a press release that outlined much of the same information as the memo to staff.
Sherry was one of Ascension Wisconsin's highest-paid executives. He received about $2 million in compensation in 2019, including about $850,000 in bonuses and incentive compensation, according to nonprofit tax filings.
Ascension under fire from multiple corners
The shakeup comes as Ascension has come under fire from health care professionals, patients and regulators for staffing and patient care concerns at Milwaukee-area hospitals.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Milwaukee Magazine separately have reported on staffing shortages at Columbia St. Mary’s in Milwaukee that have resulted in disruptions to patient care, long wait times in the emergency department, delayed surgeries and staff concerns about patient safety.
The Journal Sentinel's reporting found that nurses at Columbia St. Mary's were often assigned more patients than they considered realistic, or even safe. Without more help, nurses were at times slow to answer patients' calls for help. Overstretched nurses spent less time with individual patients and worried they might miss something that could result in a medical emergency. The hospital was cited twice last year by state regulators for not having enough nurses or other staff on units.
The widow of a former Milwaukee high school principal, Keith Carrington, filed a complaint with the state after her husband died of septic shock while hospitalized and recovering from a surgery at Columbia St. Mary's in August.
Then, in a letter to Ascension's CEO last month that cited the Journal Sentinel's reporting, Baldwin blasted Ascension Health for seemingly "operating like a private equity fund" and questioned whether the tax-exempt, St. Louis-based health system was putting its bottom line before patients.
Union official welcomes new leadership
The head of a union that represents health care workers at one of Ascension's Milwaukee hospitals, Ascension St. Francis Hospital on the city's south side, said he hopes the shakeup is a step in the right direction, but also expressed skepticism.
“We would like some new leadership that is responsive to the community in a meaningful way," said Jamie Lucas, executive director of the Wisconsin Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals.
Union members have been calling on Ascension Wisconsin to reopen the labor and delivery unit at St. Francis Hospital, which was abruptly closed in December and was the only such unit on the city's south side.
The Ascension Wisconsin spokesperson did not answer questions about how the leadership changes would address patient care concerns.
"These changes will place additional leadership resources at the hospital facility level, within key sites of care to enable our increased focus on clinical quality, appropriate staffing and support of our caregivers and associates," said the memo, which was sent by Sally Deitch, executive vice president of nursing and operations infrastructure for Ascension's regional operating office that includes Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin.
The memo said that the hospital system would share more information in the coming weeks about "specific programs that will be put in place to address immediate challenges" and to "ensure the long-term sustainability of our ministry in Wisconsin," without providing specifics about what those challenges were.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Ascension announces shakeup of leadership team in Wisconsin
