Hartford Hospital will get a new CEO next week, while its current chief executive will continue to lead the hospital’s parent company.
Jeffrey A. Flaks, Hartford Hospital’s executive vice president and chief operating officer, will become CEO Monday. President and CEO Elliot Joseph will remain president and CEO of Hartford HealthCare, the parent company.
“Hartford Hospital and Hartford HealthCare each will benefit from having its own dedicated leader,” Joseph said in a statement released by the hospital Tuesday. “As CEO, Jeff Flaks will provide the strong and steady leadership needed as we enter a new era in health care with federal health care reform.”
Flaks joined Hartford Hospital in 2007 after serving as chief operating officer at MidState Medical Center in Meriden, which is part of Hartford HealthCare. He has also worked at St. Vincent Catholic Medical Centers of New York, Beth Israel Medical Center in New York and the Detroit Medical Center in Michigan.
Joseph has led Hartford Hospital and Hartford HealthCare since 2008. Since then, the parent company has grown, adding Windham Hospital and The Hospital of Central Connecticut to the system.
“With a health care system made up of 15,000 staff members and more than 80 locations, and with the coming of health care reform and the challenges it will bring, we believe we need to follow best practices with a CEO who concentrates on the system as a whole,” Ramani Ayer, chairman of the Hartford HealthCare Board of Directors, said in a statement.