Baptist Health System CEO O’Brien announces retirement

Beth O’Brien, president and CEO of Baptist Health System (BHS), has announced her retirement, effective the end of June.
   
O’Brien, 58, joined BHS in late 2003 as it embarked on what BHS officials called a course to strengthen its financial standing and remain committed to its historic mission to provide community health care as a faith-based, nonprofit organization.
   
“Beth O’Brien has played an invaluable role during a particularly challenging time for Baptist Health System and a tumultuous time for the health-care industry in general,” said Wayne Pate, chairman of the BHS board of trustees. “The board is profoundly grateful for the vision, expertise, wealth of experience and tremendous energy that Beth has brought to bear as our president and CEO.”
   
When O’Brien came, the system owned or ran 10 hospitals. Now the system runs four — Shelby, Princeton, Walker and Citizens in Talladega — and has a third interest in Montclair Baptist Medical Center. With the purposeful downsizing, BHS also cut its employee staff almost in half. It had 9,500 employees in 2003 and now has 5,300.
   
O’Brien helped lead the system to accomplish its goals of getting BHS back focused on the Birmingham area, Pate explained.
   
“To succeed, we cannot just do our best, we must do what is necessary,” O’Brien said. “If I have been successful at Baptist Health System, it is because we worked together to do what was necessary to focus our mission and faith-based ministry on our patients and the communities we serve.”
   
Pate said, “Through her expert leadership, tireless work and assembly of a talented and committed management team, she has brought to fruition a system restructuring with a refocus on our acute care hospitals in the greater Birmingham area. 
   
“Beth’s strong and inspirational leadership has laid the groundwork for a bright future in which our mission and ministry will thrive and in which we are well-positioned for growth and success,” he said. 
   
O’Brien told The Birmingham News that she plans to move to Albuquerque, N.M., and spend a lot of time in Phoenix with her mother. 
   
O’Brien’s bout with breast cancer in 2005 did not play a role in her decision to retire, she said. (BHS, TAB)