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Bayfront Health St. Petersburg hires new CEO

 
Bayfront Health St. Petersburg will be getting a new CEO next week. Sharon Hayes will take the helm after previously serving as CEO of Regional Medical Center Bayonet Point in Hudson. She also was CEO of Palms of Pasadena and Edward White hospitals in Pinellas County. [SCOTT KEELER   |   Times]
Bayfront Health St. Petersburg will be getting a new CEO next week. Sharon Hayes will take the helm after previously serving as CEO of Regional Medical Center Bayonet Point in Hudson. She also was CEO of Palms of Pasadena and Edward White hospitals in Pinellas County. [SCOTT KEELER | Times]
Published July 8, 2019

Bayfront Health St. Petersburg has hired a new CEO five months after its previous chief executive resigned suddenly.

Sharon Hayes will take the helm at St. Petersburg's oldest and largest hospital beginning July 15. She was previously the CEO of Regional Medical Center Bayonet Point in Hudson, where she's worked since Feb. 2018.

Hayes also has served as the CEO of Palms of Pasadena Hospital and Edward White Hospital in Pinellas County. Before that, she was the chief operating officer and interim CEO at Chippenham Medical Center in Richmond, Va.

She earned a bachelor's degree in nursing from the University of Tennessee in Chattanooga and worked as the vice president of clinical affairs and chief nursing officer at CJW Medical Center in Richmond, Va. She was also the chief nursing office at St. Mary's Medical Center in West Palm Beach. She holds a master's of business administration degree from Florida Atlantic University.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE: How is it going at Bayfront Health St. Petersburg? City officials have questions.

"Sharon's focus on delivering high quality care and her commitment to continually improving patient satisfaction is evident in her accomplishments at the organizations she's previously served," said Joe Mullany, the regional president of Bayfront Health, which operates a network of seven hospitals along Florida's Gulf Coast, from Venice to Brooksville. "Sharon is equally committed to employee satisfaction, which is obvious if you look at the significant decreases in employee and nurse turnover that have occurred at every organization where she has held the lead role."

Hayes volunteers her time to support Florida Atlantic University's physican MBA development program and serves on the university's nursing leadership development board.

She replaces John McLain, who abruptly resigned along with the hospital's chief financial officer, Pamela Modisett, in February. McLain had been the hospital's CEO since July 2017, when he replaced the longtime fixture, Kathryn Gillett. Mullany temporarily stepped in as interim CEO during the search for McLain's replacement.

Bayfront hired a new CFO, Charlie Tyson, in April. He came to St. Petersburg from the Florida Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale.

RELATED: Two top leaders resign from Bayfront Health St. Petersburg

Hayes joins Bayfront Health at a tumultuous time. Earlier this year, the medical school at the University of South Florida severed its short-lived partnership with Bayfront Health St. Petersburg. The hospital also laid off 19 employees, most of the working administrative or clerical jobs.

Bayfront's corporate owner, the Nashville-based Community Health Systems chain is one of the nation's largest owners and operators of hospitals, with 137 of them in 21 states. But it has struggled financially in recent years, and continues to sell off dozens of under-performing hospitals from its portfolio. Among them was Bayfront Health Dade City, which was sold last year to AdventHealth.

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Mullany is expected to present the hospital's annual report to St. Petersburg City Council members in August.

Contact Justine Griffin at jgriffin@tampabay.com or (727) 893-8467. Follow @SunBizGriffin.