Marsha Powers to Lead Tenet’s Florida Region

Tenet Healthcare Corporation (NYSE:THC) announced today that Marsha D. Powers, a veteran health care executive with nearly three decades of experience that has included operational responsibility for large and diverse hospital networks, has been named a senior vice president, operations, effective Sept. 28.

She will lead the company’s Florida region, which includes 11 acute-care hospitals in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties. Tenet’s Florida hospitals have 3,800 beds, approximately 5,200 affiliated physicians, more than 9,600 employees and an annual payroll in the state of nearly $644 million. Her office will be at the Florida regional office in Coral Springs, and she will report to Stephen L. Newman, M.D., Tenet’s chief operating officer.

Until recently, Powers, 53, had served for more than six years as a division president of Triad Hospitals Inc., overseeing the operations of 11 hospitals, two ambulatory surgery centers and a physician management organization in Mississippi, New Mexico, Nevada, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia. She managed a division budget with $1.2 billion in net revenue. In July, Triad was acquired by Community Health Systems Inc. (NYSE:CYH).

“Marsha Powers is a strong, well-respected hospital operations executive who brings her considerable talent and experience in building solid physician relationships to this important position at Tenet,” Newman said. “She has a demonstrated record of growing volume and enhancing the quality of patient care, and she has shown herself to be a thoughtful leader and good communicator who has earned wide respect from hospital managers, nurses and doctors.”

Newman added, “Improving the performance of our Florida hospitals is a key element of Tenet’s turnaround strategy, and Marsha Powers brings the right combination of experience, leadership skills and positive energy to this vital task. We are delighted she is joining our strong team of hospital operators in Florida.”

With Powers’ appointment as senior vice president, operations, Tenet’s Florida management structure will return to the single regional organization that had been in place before April 2006, when separate market identities and managements were established for Tenet hospitals in Palm Beach County and in Miami-Dade/Broward counties. All 11 Florida hospitals will now report to a single regional management organization. For identity and branding purposes, however, the company will retain the separate market names that were previously established: the Palm Beach Health Network and the Miami-Dade/Broward Health Network.

Mitch Feldman, who has led Tenet’s Palm Beach Health Network, will continue as vice president, operations, in the Florida region, reporting to Powers. Ralph A. Aleman, who has led Tenet’s Miami-Dade/Broward Health Network, will now work on special projects, reporting to Powers. Dave Ross will continue as the Florida region’s vice president, operations finance.

After she joined Triad in 2001, Powers oversaw consistent improvement in the performance of her division’s hospitals. She also helped to develop and build two new hospitals and three replacement hospitals, and completed four major hospital expansions in excess of $20 million each.

Before joining Triad, Powers served as president of the Southeast region for Quorum Health Services Inc. from 1996 to 2001, when Triad acquired that hospital company. In that position, she was responsible for overseeing eight hospitals and three physician practice groups. She joined Quorum in 1994 as vice president, physician/hospital integration.

From 1989 to 1993, Powers served as chief executive officer of Fort Bend Hospital in Missouri City, Texas, then owned by Epic Healthcare Group Inc., and from 1988 to 1989, she was chief executive officer of Healdsburg General Hospital in Healdsburg, Calif.

Previously, she was a team leader in the strategy refinement task force from 1984 to 1988 at American Medical International, which was acquired by Tenet in 1995. Powers began her career in various management positions from 1979 to 1984 at Medical City Dallas Hospital, then owned by Humana Inc.