The CEO of Passavant Area Hospital plans on stepping down from his role at the end of the year.
Fifty-five-year-old Doug Rahn will complete his three year term before retiring from the position that helped transform the landscape of Passavant.
Prior to joining Passavant, Rahn served as Memorial’s chief operating officer for six years, as well as Leesburg Regional Medical Center’s Senior Vice President in Florida.
Passavant Board of Directors President Greg Lepper feels Rahn’s impact with the hospital and community is unparalleled.
“He’s let us know from day one that one of his major goals was to improve patient outcomes and patient experience. Our goals have not been to be acceptable, but to be in the top fifteen percent in the different categories of care we provide. That is quite unusual for a hospital in a rural setting. We have a three year plan and we are already a year ahead of that plan,” says Lepper.
Keith Bradbury, a Passavant board member for the last 13 years, says times were tough when Rahn took over the CEO position from Chet Wynn.
“He came to us with about 35 years of experience, not only in the administration of health care, but also the Memorial system. We were very attracted to the way they operated. He made the transition go as smooth as silk,” says Bradbury.
Bradbury says Rahn is big part of recent success at Passavant.
“We have the accessibility to specialties we never dreamed we would be able to do. Other than cutting open the head or the heart, we can do everything else. All those fields we struggled in getting a full time position for the greater Jacksonville area (are now filled). With Doug’s leadership and the Memorial affiliation, it has made Passavant beyond what we thought we would ever be at in just three years.”
Lepper says Passavant plans on forming a search committee, working with Memorial Health System and hiring an outside recruiting firm to fill the vacant position.
Rahn was unavailable for comment this afternoon. We plan to talk with him Thursday evening prior to Passavant’s annual Board of Governors Meeting.