Kent Sherwood, CEO, Announces Retirement
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Sutter Medical Center of Santa Rosa
Sutter Warrack Hospital
April 19, 2002
NEWS RELEASE
Sutter Medical Center of Santa Rosa and Sutter Warrack Hospital Chief Executive Officer Kent Sherwood today announced that he will retire in May after a career in health care administration spanning more than 35 years, nearly two decades of which have been with Sutter Health. Following his retirement as CEO, Sherwood will serve in a part-time consulting capacity in working with the hospital board of directors toward the final selection of a site for the proposed replacement medical center project.
"Over the past several weeks, I have been considering the sustained, long-term leadership commitment that I feel will be necessary to fully realize the medical center's goals and to take the organization to the next level," said Sherwood. "Having weighed the medical center's needs against my own personal goals, I made the difficult decision to retire." An avid mountain climber who has scaled some of the world's highest peaks, Sherwood has set his sights on new mountain treks and extended trips with his wife Meridel, a retired registered nurse. "To follow my personal passions will require a major commitment of physical conditioning, time and energy, and it would be impossible to balance these extracurricular activities with the intense focused effort needed here at the medical center," Sherwood said. "There comes a time when having a life beyond work makes sense, and that time has come for me," he said.
Sherwood, who joined the medical center in 2000, recently engineered a comprehensive reorganization of SMCSR's operations. "We have a talented and dedicated workforce and a strong management team, and we've taken some important steps in the last two years," Sherwood said. "I am proud of our organizational accomplishments and confident in what the future holds for us."
"Kent has guided the medical center through a particularly challenging period, working to balance growing community need for health care services with declining reimbursements," said Sutter Health Chief Operating Officer Pat Fry. "He has had the challenging task of holding the line on costs while maintaining high quality health care services for the Santa Rosa area. Sutter Health is looking forward to working closely with the medical staff, the local board and our employees to continue our long-term commitment to this community."
While the SMCSR Board of Directors undertakes a search for a permanent CEO, the medical center will be under the leadership of Joel Grey, a long-time Sutter Health executive with nearly three decades of experience in hospital administration. A member of the Sutter leadership team since 1985, Grey served as administrator of Novato Community Hospital, and later headed Sutter Auburn Faith Hospital and Sutter Roseville Medical Center in Placer County. He worked for Alta Bates Medical Center in Berkeley after completing his master's degree at U.C. Berkeley. Grey will assume his new interim role in Santa Rosa on May 6.
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