AURORA | The past two years have seen University of Colorado Hospital’s reach stretch from Colorado Springs all the way to Wyoming.
The hospital system, now known as University of Colorado Health, has become one of the state’s biggest health care providers, with three massive hospitals in Colorado and several affiliated clinics.
The change has been swift and seismic for UCHealth, and now more is coming. Two UCH officials who played key roles in building the hospital system will step down early next year, an amicable separation aimed at helping a new leader transition into their role..
UCHealth President Rulon Stacey and CEO Bruce Schroffel announced Aug. 23 that they would be stepping down Jan. 31, 2014. In early October, Bill Neff, UCHealth’s Chief Medical Officer, will take the reins as interim President and CEO as officials launch a nationwide search for a new leader.
“Bruce and Rulon have shown incredible leadership and vision as they have literally built the UCHealth system from the very beginning,” UCHealth Board of Directors Chairman Dick Monfort said in a statement announcing the changes. “Their direction has redefined high quality health care, and patients throughout the Rocky Mountain region and across the nation have benefitted from what they and their teams have created. The Board and I are incredibly thankful for their service, and we will soon begin the difficult task of finding a new president and CEO to lead UCHealth.”
Stacey and Schroffel’s positions will be combined into a single position.
Dan Weaver, a spokesman for UCHealth, said having a sole person serve as CEO and president is the industry norm. When UCH merged with Poudre Valley Health System last year, they split the position into two with Stacey, the former head of Poudre Valley, and Schroffel, the UCH head, taking the top spots with the new system to help with the transition.
Helping the new system transition again is why the two men opted to give almost six months notice of their planned departures, Weaver said.
“They really felt like this was the right time for this transition because UCHealth has made so much progress,” he said.
That progress has included combining the medical and financial records of all the affiliated hospitals and clinics, and making sure the doctors at each facility can communicate with each other, he said.
The past two years have seen substantial changes for the hospital system, including the merger of UCH and Poudre Valley Health System at the end of January 2012.
That merger saw UCH join Poudre Hospital in Fort Collins, Medical Center of the Rockies in Loveland and their affiliated clinics. Ivinson Memorial in Laramie, Wyo., was included as an affiliate of UCHealth.
In October 2012, UCHealth added Memorial Central Hospital in Colorado Springs and Memorial North Hospital in northern Colorado Springs.
“Creating UCHealth has been one of the proudest moments of my career,” Schroffel, who is retiring, said in the statement. “I’m even more convinced today than when we first started these conversations in 2010 that not only was creating UCHealth the right thing to do, it’s the best thing for patients along the Front Range. Now it’s time to turn the reigns over to a new kind of leadership to grow the system.”
Stacey, who is expected to look for other opportunities in the health care sector, said he, too, was proud of his work forming the system.
“I have made sure UCHealth is unyielding in our focus on providing the very highest quality patient care while also focusing on efficiencies which will make us better able to face the health care challenges of tomorrow,” he said. “I’m confident that patients and our staff members are better cared for today than before we formed UCHealth. I’ll now be looking for exciting new opportunities, perhaps continuing to prepare for the future of health care.”