The CEO for the East Hawaii region of the state’s public hospital system has announced his resignation, effective Aug. 9.
Howard N. Ainsley will take on the role of CEO at Morehead Memorial Hospital in Eden, N.C., according to a Thursday release from Hawaii Health Systems Corp.
Ainsley oversaw management of HHSC’s Big Island public health care facilities, including Hilo Medical Center, Hale Hoola Hamakua and Ka‘u Hospital. According to a fiscal year 2013 report, HHSC provided care for almost 66 percent of all acute care discharges and 84 percent of all emergency room visits on Hawaii Island.
During his tenure, Ainsley presided over many changes within the health system in East Hawaii. As health care costs continued to rise, he and his leadership team undertook a series of projects to upgrade procedures and systems at HHSC facilities to help boost efficiency and quality of care measurements while ensuring higher reimbursements under the requirements of the Affordable Care Act.
“Over the past five years, I’ve had the honor of working with the exceptional people as we became the first HHSC affiliated organization to implement an electronic medical record (system) and develop a Family Residency Program; We’ve made significant improvements in our clinical quality and core measures, and introduced state-of-the-art technological advances to our hospitals,” he was quoted as saying in the press release.
“We are becoming a more patient centered organization intent on improving the quality of care for our island’s residents and have much to celebrate. It has been my pleasure serving the East Hawaii Community through this period of growth, and I leave the organization in the care of a dedicated, hard working and gifted team of board members, executives and managers. I know they will continue to push the region toward becoming a top-notch hospital in Hawaii, and wish them the very best.”
Gary Yoshiyama, chairman of HHSC’s East Hawaii Regional Board, said Thursday via the press release that Ainsley had played a large part in improving health care in East Hawaii.
“We are thankful for having had Howard’s leadership over the past five years as we went through our transformation to becoming a more quality driven organization. We wish Howard the very best as he enters the next stage of his career.
“The East Hawaii Region will continue to focus on its vision of becoming a health care system that provides patient centered, culturally competent, cost effective care with exceptional outcomes and superior patient satisfaction. Our board has also reaffirmed its commitment to its strategic plan and will move forward with it as its guiding document.”
Morehead Memorial is affiliated with Novant Health System, a private, not-for-profit health care system with $5.8 billion in operating revenue. Novant operates in North Carolina, Virginia, South Carolina and Georgia. It owns or operates 28 medical centers and 158 ambulatory centers, and has more than 5,000 physician partners as members of its medical staff, including 1,200 Novant Health Medical Group physicians at 350 locations.
Email Colin M. Stewart at cstewart@hawaiitribune-herald.com.