St. Joseph Health has named Richard Parks as the new president and chief executive officer (CEO) of its Covenant Health System located in Lubbock, Texas.
As president and CEO, Parks will oversee Covenant Health System, including Covenant Medical Center 19th Street, Covenant Women’s and Children’s and Covenant Specialty Hospital, all in Lubbock, as well as the Covenant Medical Group and Covenant-affiliated and managed health care providers in West Texas and New Mexico.
“We are very please to welcome Richard to St. Joseph Health (SJH),” Joe Randolph, executive vice president and chief operating officer of St. Joseph Health, said. “Richard will truly lead Covenant Health System toward extending our mission to the people of Lubbock and the region beyond. He is an exceptional leader who understands our core values of Dignity, Service, Excellence, Justice; we are thrilled he has chosen to join our team.”
Parks’ career in health care system leadership spans 27 years, including 11 years at the CEO level. Parks possesses significant experience leading not-for-profit health care systems serving mid-size and rural communities, and has a strong reputation as a leader who can establish effective working relationships with physicians.
Parks comes to Lubbock from Jackson, Tenn. where he served as the president and CEO of West Tennessee Healthcare (WTH). WTH is one of the 10 largest not-for-profit public systems in the country, with six hospitals and more than 5,500 employee associates.
While at WTH, Parks was responsible for developing task forces to deal with such issues as physician recruitment and retention, emergency department call coverage, service line medical director selection for centers of excellence, governance and hospital-based medical staff. He also dramatically increased the number of employed physicians for the system and established a strong array of primary care and specialty care clinics that received more than 140,000 annual outpatient visits.
WTH was recognized by the Tennessee Hospital Association as the lowest patient charge and highest value health system in the state. Parks led the first comprehensive employee opinion survey which showed employee satisfaction ranking in the top 10 percent of all U.S. hospitals in several key categories.
Prior to working at WTH, Parks was the president and chief executive officer at Cape Fear Valley Health System in Fayetteville, N.C. for seven years.
Parks received his Bachelor of Science, Marketing from the University of South Carolina. He received both a Master of Health Administration and a Master of Business Administration from Georgia State University. Parks is a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives. Parks is married to Judy, and they have two grown daughters.
Covenant Health System is the largest health care institution in the region with 1,326 licensed beds, more than 5,000 employees and a medical staff of more than 600 physicians at its cornerstone facilities.
Covenant is a member of St. Joseph Health in Orange County and serves a 62-county area spanning West Texas and eastern New Mexico, with a population in excess of 1.2 million. Cornerstone hospitals are Covenant Medical Center, Covenant Women’s and Children’s and Covenant Specialty Hospital. Other system hospitals are Covenant Hospital Levelland and Covenant Hospital Plainview, along with 12 other affiliated hospitals across the region.
The St. Joseph Health (SJH) is an integrated Catholic healthcare delivery system sponsored by the St. Joseph Health Ministry. We provide a full range of care facilities including acute care hospitals, home health agencies, hospice care, outpatient services, skilled nursing facilities, community clinics, and physician organizations throughout California, Texas and New Mexico. Our 24,000 dedicated employees strive daily to provide perfect care while building the healthiest communities and ensuring every encounter is sacred. SJHS is committed to maintaining a continuum of care that matches the diverse needs of the communities we serve. For more information about SJHS, log onto www.stjoe.org.