Elliot Joseph

The Board of Directors of Hartford Hospital is delighted to announce that an offer has been made and accepted for the positions of President and Chief Executive Officer of Hartford Hospital, and CEO-Designee of Hartford Healthcare Corporation.

Elliot Joseph will take over the leadership of Hartford Hospital in early April, 2008.  At the same time, he will become CEO-Designee of Hartford Healthcare Corporation, the hospital’s parent organization.  John Meehan, with a remarkable career as the long-time steward of Hartford Hospital, will remain the CEO of Hartford Healthcare Corporation until the end of the year.  These steps for the system are the outgrowth of a process that started last July, when a national search for a new chief executive was launched.

Mr. Joseph is currently Senior Executive with Ascension Health, the nation’s largest Catholic and nonprofit health system.  For eight years prior to that he served as the President and CEO of St. John Health, a 7-hospital, $2 billion system in Warren, Michigan, that is part of the Ascension system.  There he oversaw a team composed of 18,000 associates and 3,200 physicians.

“The search committee, and all who participated in the search process, were impressed with Mr. Joseph’s accomplishments and leadership qualities,” said Laura Estes, Chair of Hartford Hospital’s Board of Directors.  “His fresh vision and dynamic ability to build consensus will serve the hospital well for years to come.  We thank John Meehan for his many contributions, and look forward to a new era in the hospital’s history.”

“I am very happy to be joining the Hartford Healthcare team,” said Mr. Joseph. “The caliber of the system’s physicians, nurses, staff and volunteers is impressive.  Hartford Healthcare has a rich tradition of excellence in providing care, teaching and research, with tremendous potential for continued growth and innovation.  My family and I are pleased to return to the East Coast to make Connecticut our home.  My wife and I are both sports fans and look forward to becoming Huskies supporters.”   

While CEO of St. John Health, Elliot Joseph focused his efforts on transforming the culture of the organization from a loosely-united group of seven hospitals and 125 outpatient centers into a coordinated system of care.  His vision of “providing the highest quality patient care experience every day, everywhere, for everyone” became the impetus for fixing what he views as a “broken” health care industry.  His accomplishments there include an improved annual operating margin, decreased mortality rates, significant inpatient growth, decreased turnover in nursing and an increase in employee satisfaction.   

 
Mr. Joseph holds a bachelor of science from the State University of New York at Binghamton, a master of health services administration from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and is an alumnus of the Wharton CEO Program for Health Care Leadership.  He and his wife, Carolyn, have five children.