ProMedica promotes COO Arturo Polizzi to president
ProMedica promoted its chief operating officer to president, where he takes on a title previously held by CEO Randy Oostra.
Arturo Polizzi will continue to serve as COO in addition to his new role as president. He will continue to report to Oostra.
“Promotions occur regularly at ProMedica,” ProMedica Public Relations Director Tausha Moore wrote in an email. “The title change reflects additional leadership responsibilities he has taken on within the organization.”
“It is not unusual for organizations to have separate CEO and president roles,” she said.
Oostra had served as president and CEO of ProMedica since 2009, according to his LinkedIn profile. He previously served as president and COO.
Polizzi oversees operations for ProMedica’s acute, ambulatory and provider care, senior care and health plan divisions. He served in various leadership roles at ProMedica between 1998 and 2018 and returned to the health system in 2021 as COO after leading Cincinnati-based Christ Hospital Health Network as president and CEO.
The leadership change at ProMedica comes amid financial challenges at the Toledo, Ohio-based not-for-profit system.
“Together, they [Oostra and Polizzi] will lead ProMedica to help ensure that it is able to address the financial challenges that all health systems are facing,” Moore wrote.
Fitch Ratings earlier this month downgraded ProMedica and assigned the health system a negative ratings outlook.
ProMedica reported a consolidated operating margin of -2% last year, compared to 0.7% in 2020, even as operating revenue grew from $6.86 billion to $6.93 billion. During a call with investors in March, then-Chief Financial Officer Steve Cavanaugh cited patient volumes below pre-pandemic levels, labor shortages and less federal COVID-19 aid as contributors.
ProMedica on Wednesday said Louis E. Robichaux IV would serve as interim CFO, replacing Cavanaugh.
Robichaux is a senior managing director at consulting firm Ankura, where he provides operational turnaround, restructuring, interim management and financial advisory services, according to a news release from ProMedica.
Cavanaugh had taken on the role of ProMedica CFO in 2019 after leading HCR ManorCare, a post-acute care provider ProMedica acquired in 2018.
ProMedica in recent years has made a play for the senior living market, buying HCR ManorCare—since renamed ProMedica Senior Care—for roughly $1.4 billion. ProMedica’s senior care unit recorded a $275 million operating loss in 2021.