Scheduled To Assume Helm In April
By HILARY WALDMAN | Courant Staff Writer
February 23, 2008

Hartford Hospital has tapped a veteran of a Missouri-based Catholic hospital system as its next president and chief executive officer.

The board of directors Friday named Elliot Joseph, 53, to take over the 867-bed teaching hospital in April, when longtime president John Meehan retires. In January 2009, Joseph also will take the helm of Hartford Healthcare Corp., an umbrella organization that includes MidState Medical Center in Meriden, Clinical Lab Partners, VNA Healthcare, Eastern Rehab Network and other organizations.

Joseph is now a senior executive with St. Louis-based Ascension Health, the nation's largest Catholic and nonprofit health system with hospitals and other health care facilities in 20 states. Previously, he ran a seven-hospital system in Warren, Mich., that is part of Ascension's network.
Joseph's appointment was announced two weeks after Hartford Hospital was placed on probation by the state Department of Public Health, which chastised the hospital for multiple lapses in patient care — including four cases in which patients died. The health department ordered the hospital to make sweeping changes in the way it delivers care.

The timing, however, was coincidental. Meehan, 62, announced his intention to retire last summer, and a search committee has been looking for a replacement for the past several months.

Laura Estes, chairman of Hartford Hospital's board of directors, said the search committee was impressed with Joseph's leadership qualities. "His fresh vision and dynamic ability to build consensus will serve the hospital well for years to come," she said.

A native of Queens, N.Y., Joseph said he and his family were looking forward to returning to the East Coast after years in the Midwest. He said he was impressed by Hartford's physicians, nurses and volunteers. He said he sees "tremendous potential for increased growth" in the Hartford Hospital system.

Joseph holds a bachelor of science degree from the State University of New York at Binghamton and a master's in health services administration from the University of Michigan. He and his wife, Carolyn, have five children.