- Push-out Score determined
- After almost 24 years in the position
- Accolades, praise and thanks for Smith
- Tim Hingtgen taking over
- Smith will remain as Executive Chairman at Community Health
- Smith spoke at length and said 152 words
(exechange) — Franklin, Tennessee, October 27, 2020 — Wayne Smith, chief executive of Community Health, leaves his position. As announced by Community Health Systems Inc. in a news release and in a regulatory filing published on Tuesday, October 27, 2020, Wayne T. Smith leaves his post as chief executive officer at the hospital company after almost 24 years in the role, effective January 1, 2021.
It is the end of an era.
Wayne Smith’s duties as CEO will be taken over by Tim L. Hingtgen, currently President and Chief Operating Officer of Community Health Systems Inc.
It is a generational change as well. Tim Hingtgen is about 22 years younger than Wayne Smith.
“Longstanding succession plan”
Wayne Smith’s departure from the CEO post is explained as follows. Community Health said: “Hingtgen’s appointment to Chief Executive Officer is part of a longstanding succession plan.”
Smith will remain as Executive Chairman at Community Health
“Wayne T. Smith, the Company’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, will transition from Chief Executive Officer to Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors, effective January 1, 2021,” Community Health said.
Share price decline since October 2015
The announcement follows a decline in Community Health Systems Inc.’s share price of 86% since October 2015.
In the position of CEO since 1997
Wayne Smith became CEO of the Company in 1997.
Smith will retain certain strategic and other executive management responsibilities with regard to the future direction of the Company.
Smith is the Company’s Chair and Chief Executive Officer.
Smith joined the Company in January 1997 as President, a position he held until January 2014.
Since April 1997, he has served as the Company’s Chief Executive Officer and as a member of the Board of Directors. In 2001, he was elected Chair of the Company’s Board of Directors.
Prior to joining the Company, Smith was president and chief operating officer of Humana Inc., where he served in various management positions during 23 years with that company and as a director from 1993 to 1996.
Smith also serves on the board of trustees of Auburn University and currently serves as the president pro tempore.
He previously served on the board of directors of Praxair from July 2001 until its merger with Linde AG in October 2018, with service initially on Praxair’s audit committee and later on its compensation committee (former chair).
Smith is the past-chair of the board of the Federation of American Hospitals.
He is also the past-chair and a former board member of both the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce and the Nashville Health Care Council.
Smith is one of the most tenured executives in the healthcare industry, with decades of experience in both the hospital sector and the managed care sector.
He has been named one of the 100 Most Influential People in Healthcare each of the 18 years Modern Healthcare has published the peer voted list, one of only three people to be named to the list every year since its inception.
Institutional Investor magazine has named Smith a Top CEO for the healthcare facilities sector several times since 2008.
Smith has also been honored on several occasions as being one of the top chief executive officers in the institutional provider segment of the healthcare sector.
Push-out Score determined
The Push-out Score™ determined by exechange gauges the pressure surrounding the management change on a scale of 0 to 10.
exechange reached out to Community Health and offered the company the opportunity to comment on the score.
Read the full story in the exechange report 44.2020 ($).