New CEO Tabbed at Stormont Vail

The ranks of this region’s health-care leadership reshuffled again today as Stormont Vail Health announced that Randy Peterson, president and chief executive officer, will retire next spring.

In a news release, the health system said Peterson had informed the hospital’s board that he would leave by March 31.  Stormont Vail’s board of directors responded by naming chief medical officer Robert Kenagy as his successor, effective April 1.

The announcement came the same day Olathe Health introduced its new CEO, Stan Holm, and continued a trend of leadership changes across the region. Shawnee Mission Health, Children’s Mercy Kansas City and Prime Healthcare’s four-hospital network all announced new leadership just this year. Stormont Vail, though, is the largest to witness that change, ranking No. 2 in 2017 admissions among more than three dozen hospitals in the Kansas City region.

“Randy is a passionate leader who has steered Stormont Vail Health to become one of the strongest, independent, not-for-profit health systems in our region and the country,” said board chairman Rick Wienckowski. “In his tenure we have grown as an organization to serve more than 270,000 individuals every year across communities in eastern and central Kansas.”

Peterson came to Stormont Vail in 2012 from Wichita, where he had been senior vice president of hospital operations at Via Christi Health System. Before that, he was CEO at Salina Regional Health. During his leadership at Stormont Vail, Peterson oversaw the organization’s membership in the Mayo Clinic Care Network and continues to advocate for Medicaid expansion in Kansas. In 2016, he received the Charles S. Billings Award for lifetime achievement from the Kansas Hospital Association.

“I’m proud to be the fifth CEO of Stormont Vail since the joining of Christ’s Hospital and Jane C. Stormont Hospital in 1949,” Peterson said. “The key to our success as an organization has always been strong physician leadership. Everyone at Stormont Vail is on the same team; and it’s those relationships with physicians and team members that have been the most rewarding part of my 40-plus-year career in health care.”

Wienckowski credited Kenagy’s leadership with helping the system expand access to primary care and specialty care services, and with redesigning Stormont Vail’s primary care model focusing on population health. Kenagy joined Stormont Vail in April 2016 and since then the medical group has grown to more than 500 providers across 29 clinic locations.

Before that, he worked in Tulsa as senior vice president of St. John’s Health Network, following a stint as senior vice president for physician services and CEO of Via Christi Clinic in Wichita. He also was a practicing family medicine physician with the Wichita Clinic for more than 20 years.

“I have had the privilege of working with Randy both at Stormont Vail Health and at Via Christi in Wichita,” Kenagy said. “I especially appreciate Randy’s care for both patients and team members, and his dedication to improving quality, experience and access to health care for all Kansans. I am honored and humbled to serve as the next CEO. I look forward to continuing this work alongside our great team at Stormont Vail Health, with a focus on improving the health of our communities.”

Posted Wednesday, Sept. 26, 2018