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Richard Hachten II, who returned to Alegent Health last fall to repair sour relations with physicians, will stay on indefinitely as CEO and president.
The Alegent board in October brought Hachten, a founder of Alegent in 1996, back for two years. The board has decided to keep him for the long term at the helm of the largest hospital system in Nebraska and western Iowa.
Hachten, 65, said Wednesday he has met one-on-one and in groups with dozens of physicians. He has formed a physicians collaboration council so doctors have more say in key decisions. And he has worked out an agreement with spine surgeons who will form a new back-surgery hospital this year within Immanuel Medical Center. Some doctors felt Immanuel had been devalued over the past couple of years.
“Alegent Health is stabilized . . . and relationships throughout the system are strengthened, especially with our medical staff,” Leslie Andersen, chairwoman of the Alegent board, said in a written statement. “We are blessed that Rick has agreed to stay with us and lead us through the work ahead.”
Alegent employs close to 9,000 people and owns nine hospitals in eastern Nebraska and western Iowa.
Last fall physicians at two of those hospitals, Bergan Mercy and Immanuel, cast votes of no confidence against CEO Wayne Sensor. The Alegent board and Sensor parted ways in October. The board then brought back Hachten, who had retired as Alegent president in April 2009. Hachten had been on the job only a couple of days when four other key Alegent officers departed.
Hachten said his mantra is “everything is about relationships.” Hachten said he has reached out to physicians in their offices, over breakfast in restaurants and at the Alegent McAuley Center on West Dodge Road.
“Each one of them had their own story and had to be listened to and addressed,” Hachten said of the physicians. “And that’s what we did and continue to do.”
Many independent physicians who had practiced for years at Alegent hospitals felt Sensor intended to rely increasingly on Alegent-employed physicians rather than independent doctors.
Doctors who practiced at Immanuel complained that heart surgery had been moved elsewhere and that their hospital’s role was being diminished. Some orthopedic surgeons and family practice doctors have moved out of the Alegent system to Methodist Hospital and its affiliated physician group.
Hachten has been welcomed back as a trustworthy administrator whom physicians can talk to, said Dr. Jerry Fischer, a kidney specialist in private practice. Nevertheless, Fischer said, it’s “way too little, way too late” in some cases.
Immanuel’s heart surgery program won’t ever return, he said, nor will physicians who have left Alegent.
Dr. Gamini Soori, a private-practice cancer specialist based at Bergan Mercy, was more upbeat. “I must say that the relationship with the administration in general has improved remarkably,” Soori said.
Soori said he has met with Hachten individually and attended group meetings with him. Hachten has assured independent physicians that Alegent won’t exclude them, he said.
Pat Fahey, administrator for a group of heart specialists, agreed. Fahey said independent physicians worried they would be left out. “For a while, they (Alegent managers) were just going to more or less a closed shop,” Fahey said.
At one point, Alegent expected its own cardiology group to read all echocardiogram results and stress tests at Immanuel, even those ordered by independent cardiologists. Alegent rescinded that after a short time while Sensor was still in control.
Hachten has allowed independent heart specialists to “practice in an unfettered way in the Alegent system,” Fahey said.
Hachten said surgeons at the Nebraska Spine Center in Omaha had felt disenfranchised to some degree by Alegent. He sat down with them and “got the relationship back on track,” he said. Now those and other surgeons intend to form a back-surgery hospital with Alegent within Immanuel, Hachten said.
Hachten said he and his wife are building a home in Bend, Ore., that they will move into next week. His wife, Jeanine, remains in Oregon.
Hachten said he spends two long weekends a month in Oregon. When in Oregon, he continues to work on Alegent projects, he said.
“When I’m here, I’m here 110 percent,” he said in an interview in Omaha. “And when I’m in Oregon, I’m here 100 percent.”
Contact the writer:
444-1123, rick.ruggles@owh.com
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