Novant Health changed the job responsibilities of some of its top executives as part of a “redesigned leadership operating model” that it says will help the Winston-Salem-based hospital system’s “agility and scalability.”
The model formalizes a regional structure that includes separate Charlotte, Triad, Coastal and South Carolina units. Each will be named Novant Health and be led by a president “responsible for optimizing care for a seamless, patient-centered experience across the care continuum,” according to a press release.
The new structure names Executive Vice Presidents John Gizdic and Dean Swindle as the two senior executives with the most broad responsibilities. Both report to CEO Carl Armato, who has been CEO since 2012 after joining Novant Health in 1998.
Gizdic is responsible for acute care, integrated care solutions, nursing and clinical services, and the Triad and Coastal regions. He previously had oversight for all Novant Health hospitals. He’s a former Atrium Health executive who was CEO of New Hanover Regional Medical Center when Novant Health bought the Wilmington hospital system in 2021.
Swindle is responsible for ambulatory care, physician enterprise, integrated value-based care model, strategy, Novant Health Enterprises, and the Charlotte and South Carolina regions, plus “growth regions.” He was a former chief financial officer at Novant Health before moving to Chicago-based CommonSpirit Health Catholic Health Initiatives from 2010-19, then returning to Novant Health in key executive roles.
Novant Health said “underpinning these changes” is the integration of Novant Health Enterprises more broadly and collaboratively throughout the organization.” It launched the enterprise group in 2022 as a business division to accelerate growth.
Novant Health has become North Carolina’s second-largest hospital operator with revenue of about $10 billion after buying three coastal South Carolina last year.
CEO Armato has overseen significant leadership changes in recent years. Six of the 10 highest-paid executives at Novant in 2021 no longer worked at the organization as of last summer. That included officials holding the chief operating officer, chief financial officer, chief medical officer, chief digital officer and chief consumer officer posts.
The system had operating income of about $582 million during the first nine months of 2024, versus a $22.5 million deficit a year earlier. Total revenue increased 32% to $6.9 billion. Net assets increased 18% to nearly $8 billion as of Sept. 30, from a year earlier.