Caponi to step down as St. Vincent system CEO

Vince Caponi will step down as CEO of the St. Vincent Health hospital system to take a new role within St. Vincent’s parent organization, Ascension Health Alliance.

On July 1, Caponi will become senior vice president of St. Louis-based Ascension Health Alliance, which is the largest Catholic hospital system in the nation. He will also be executive chairman of the board for St. Vincent Health.

Caponi

In Caponi's asbence, Ian Worden will serve as interim CEO. Worden has since 2008 has been chief operating officer of the 22-hospital system, the second largest in Indiana. Worden previously served as St. Vincent’s chief financial officer for eight years.

Worden will lead St. Vincent at a time when it is cutting jobs and other expenses—as are all hospitals—in response to financial pressures from the federal government and private health insurers.

Since Caponi arrived in 1998, St. Vincent has engineered a flurry of mergers around the state. The hospital system expanded from locations in Carmel, Elwood and Indianapolis and now operates in 15 cities, stretching from Evansville to Kokomo.

St. Vincent expanded from about 5,200 full-time equivalent employees when Caponi arrived to 17,500 now. In its most recent fiscal year, St. Vincent’s sprawling operations pulled in $2.3 billion in revenue.

Caponi also took a leading role in the launch of the Indiana Health Information Exchange Inc., in which the largest hospital systems in Indianapolis took the unusual step of jointly funding a digital network for swapping patient records when needed.

The changes at St. Vincent Health come after Ascension promoted Patricia Maryland in April to be president of health care operations, overseeing Ascension’s vast network of 1,500 health care facilities. Maryland worked under Caponi as president of St. Vincent Indianapolis Hospital, before leaving in 2007 to head up an Ascension hospital system in Michigan.