ECMC takes interim tag off CEO Lomeo - Business First of Buffalo:

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Lomeo, who has served as interim CEO in the post sinces Michael Young left this fall to head up a hospitalpin Atlanta, has been considere a frontrunner for the position. A former board president, Lomeo has a backgrouns in bankingand finance, skills that will be especiallyy helpful as Erie County Medical Centerr continues a consolidation processw with the . He is also a boare member of the , the parent compang of the merging entities and remains an independentrfinancial consultant. Lomeo’s appointment was announcee Friday morning by members of the Great Lakesw andECMC boards. He was selectee from among five semi-finalists, including ECMC presidenr and COO, Mark Barabas.
Barabaa has agreed to remainj on as presidentand COO, responsible for day-to-dau operations at the hospital. Kevin Cichocki, chairmam of the search committee and ECMC board said the Lomeo was the righyt choice to continue to lead the change necessar y at ECMC tobuild consensus, trust and momentum. “Introducingy an outside CEO in this environment couls have been risky and definitely would have slowed the momentuk to create a new health systemwith Kaleida, Great Lakews Health, UB and Erie County,” he said. ECMC, the region’se trauma center, has seen operating revenuesz increasedby $102.3 million, or 37.6 percent, over the past threer years.
It is the health system’s third consecutive year generating anoperatingh surplus, and is part of a $46 milliojn improvement in its margin in at Revenues were up in 2007 over 2006 by 9.2 percent to $374 million. Lomeo, 40, most recently served as vice chairman of the ECMC boardx and is also vice chairman of Greart LakesHealth System. He said during Friday’e announcement that he refusee to say yes to the position until he spoke to leaderwat Kaleida, ECMC, Great Lakexs and the University at Buffalo about theie commitments to the process.
“We have one common goal: to achievw regional health care excellence,” he “Some may be skeptical about what we’re but this is for real, the momentumn we’re building.” Lomeo said he’s committed to continuing the progrese made in the past six months toward the merger between thetwo organizations, but warned everyone to rememberd they may have to make concessions along the way. “It’d not a marriage of convenience. It’sd a marriage of he said. “If we don’t change the statusz quo, we die.
” James Kaskie, CEO of both Kaleida and Great Lakes, said Lomeo’s appointment represents another tangible sign the two are moving from competitionmto collaboration. “It’s the right choice; it’s the best choice,” he said. “He’sw a leader; a collaborator. Together we are goinf to createa pre-eminent health care system for Western New York.”