Updated 9 am, Feb. 24
Martha’s Vineyard Hospital will hire Joseph Woodin, administrator for the past 17 years of the Gifford Medical Center in Randolph, Vt., to succeed chief executive officer Tim Walsh, who will retire in April.
The Vermont and Vineyard hospitals have many similarities. Both are small critical-care-access hospitals that serve rural communities.
Gifford Hospital is a 25-bed critical access hospital and federally qualified health center with a total of nine locations in central Vermont. The main medical center is home to a 24-hour emergency department, inpatient and rehabilitation units, a birthing center, an accredited cancer program, advanced diagnostic imaging, and surgery. Gifford also offers a 30-bed skilled nursing facility (SNF), and Mr. Woodin has been involved in building a $12 million independent living center.
In a press release posted on the Gifford Medical Center website, Mr. Woodin cited personal reasons for his decision to move from Vermont to Martha’s Vineyard. “There is not a single reason why I should leave, or want to leave Gifford,” Mr. Woodin said. “In the past three years I lost my wife, and then my mother, and it has been a time of personal reflection for me. It’s the right time for me to move forward in life and pursue another opportunity.”
Tim Sweet of West Tisbury, longtime chairman of the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital board, told The Times in a telephone call Saturday that it is fortuitous that Mr. Woodin was looking to make a change at the time that the hospital was searching for a new CEO.
“He is the perfect fit for Martha’s Vineyard Hospital and the Island, I believe,” Mr. Sweet said. “The similarity of his career, what’s been done up there and what we’re doing here, is fortuitous.”
Mr. Sweet said that Mr. Woodin rose to the top very quickly. “He’s a very impressive man. I think we’re lucky to get him.”
The hospital board and Mr. Woodin came to an agreement last week. Mr. Sweet, who had not expected the news to leak out, said the hospital board will meet Monday to ratify the agreement, the details of which he said are private. Mr. Sweet said the board had expected to distribute a press release and inform hospital employees Monday.
Mr. Walsh, president and chief executive officer of Martha’s Vineyard Hospital since 2002, announced his retirement to the hospital board in September. In a telephone conversation Saturday, Mr. Walsh said he is very pleased that the hospital board offered the job to Mr. Woodin and he accepted.
“We had great candidates that came through, but he was far above; he was terrific,” Mr. Walsh said. “I think he will do a great job.”
Mr. Walsh said that one of his concerns in stepping down is that the progress he has helped to oversee during his 16-year tenure continues. He is confident that will be the case. “I am really happy because I want to see the hospital continue to improve and get better, and I think he is the guy, he is really good,” Mr. Walsh said.
Mr. Walsh said that, as was the case when he took over at Martha’s Vineyard Hospital, Mr. Woodin took over a system that needed help. “He turned Gifford around, and I think he can take Martha’s Vineyard Hospital to the next level,” Mr. Walsh said. “There’s always work to do, and I think he is the kind of guy that knows that, and understands that and can make it all work.”
‘Unique opportunity’
In a telephone call late Tuesday from his office in Vermont, Mr. Woodin told The Times that he visited Martha’s Vineyard a few years ago as a consultant when the hospital was preparing to introduce its hospitalist program, and he liked the Island very much.
“I said to myself that if I was ever going to take a job somewhere else, that it would have to be a very unique opportunity,” he said. When the Vineyard position opened up, it appeared to be that opportunity, he said, “so I pursued it.”
Mr. Woodin said he and his deceased wife, Pat, loved to visit the ocean, primarily in Maine, with their three children, two girls and one boy, now grown and pursuing careers. He recently became a grandfather for the first time.
Mr. Woodin said the new job feels comfortable, and while there will certainly be some challenges, he will be building on the strong foundation built by Tim Walsh. Mr. Woodin said he understands the concern Mr. Walsh has for making sure whoever follows him will do a good job.
“Tim’s done a great job. He’s brought financial stability, reliability, and consistency, and now it is my job to carry it from there. That will be the same experience for the person who comes here [Gifford Medical Center] after me. Isn’t that interesting?”
Mr. Woodin said he looks forward starting his new job on Martha’s Vineyard. “I’m extremely thankful for the opportunity, and I’m very excited,” he said.
The guiding philosophy
Mr. Woodin holds a master of science degree in Science in Administration from Saint Michael’s College in Washington, D.C., and a bachelor of science in Industrial Engineering/Operations Research from UMass Amherst. According to his hospital biography, Mr. Woodin spent seven years at Central Vermont Medical Center as a senior executive, and five years at what is now the University of Vermont Medical Care Center in its management services department.
He joined Gifford in 1999 as first chief operating officer, but was quickly promoted in 2000 to chief executive officer and president. Under his leadership, Gifford since has operated “in the black,” meeting both its state-approved budget and operating margin.
According to a Gifford press release, the hospital has more than 600 employees in 11 locations. In 2013, Gifford’s longtime focus on community primary care was strengthened with a federally qualified health center designation, and in 2014 it was named a Top 100 Critical Access Hospital in the nation.
During his tenure Mr. Woodin oversaw expansion of Gifford’s network of community health centers, as well as the expansion of the radiology and emergency departments. According to the Gifford website, “Mr. Woodin’s latest vision includes the creation of a senior living community in Randolph Center and private patient rooms. The Randolph Center campus includes the Menig Nursing Home, and work is slated to begin in the spring on the first independent living building …
“Gifford has also expanded patient services during this time, ranging from the creation of a hospitalist program in 2006 that has allowed the hospital to provide local care for more serious illnesses to the creation of a the palliative care program. The guiding philosophy has been to provide appropriate care for all stages of life from birth to end of life.
“Woodin’s commitment to the community has spread beyond the walls of Gifford to include ongoing support for local businesses. He has worked diligently to encourage economic growth and vibrancy to help build a healthy community.”
In good shape
Following the announcement of his retirement, Mr. Walsh, who turned 69 this month, told The Times, “The hospital is in very good shape, and that is the way I want to leave.”
The South Boston native will leave a hospital and health care landscape that is considerably different from the one he found when the hospital board of trustees named Mr. Walsh, then hospital chief financial officer, CEO in the wake of one of the most tumultuous periods in hospital history.
Over the fall and winter of 2001–02, the hospital administration found itself at odds with members of the nursing and medical staffs. The departure of former CEO Kevin Burchill and board resignations coincided with the election of John Ferguson, a seasonal resident of West Tisbury, to the chairmanship, the appointment that April of Mr. Walsh as interim CEO, and a lessening of tensions.
The hospital building was a decaying one-story wooden structure notable for the buckets in the hallways every time it rained. The emergency department afforded no privacy. Primary-care doctors were private practitioners operating out of rented hospital office space, and most offices were closed to new patients.
On July 26, 2002, standing before more than 30 employees gathered in the spare, institutional setting of the hospital cafeteria, Mr. Ferguson,
then CEO of Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey, announced that Mr. Walsh has been selected as the hospital’s new CEO.
Employees cheered at the news. Their reaction was echoed in the comments of board members, community health leaders, and members of the search committee, who praised Mr. Walsh as a man with the skills and integrity to do the job.
Mr. Ferguson, widely credited with building Hackensack University Medical Center into one of the country’s best hospitals, said confidently that with the resources on the Island, there was no reason why Martha’s Vineyard Hospital could not be one of the best rural hospitals in the country.
The man put in charge of bringing about that change was Mr. Walsh.
A new $50 million hospital has replaced the wooden, ramshackle building. The hospital is now part of the Partners Healthcare network, and owned by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). The hospital staff now includes primary care doctors, and MGH specialists provide radiology and anesthesiology services.
An MGH hematology and medical oncology team provides comprehensive, integrated services for a wide range of some specialty cancers, such as breast cancer. The team rotates visits to the Island, and chemotherapy is administered under their guidance.
The hospital also added three hospitalists — doctors who treat only inpatients — to the hospital staff. The program, which has seen wide acceptance in hospitals around the country, is designed to free primary care doctors from the often time-consuming responsibility of admitting and discharging patients and on-call assignments, and to provide better continuity of care for inpatients.
His latest project is a new walk-in clinic to address a longstanding shortage of access to noncritical health care for Islanders. The clinic is expected to open later this year.