Trip Pilgrim named Regional President for Steward's East Division

BOSTON, Feb. 16, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Steward Health Care announced Trip Pilgrim as Regional President for Steward's East Division succeeding John Polanowicz. Trip joins Steward with extensive health care experience delivering strong operating performance while focusing on patient care and safety.

For sixteen years Trip has held positions of increased responsibility at Vanguard Health Systems, a large public company later acquired by Tenet Healthcare. Most recently, Trip served as Market Chief Executive Office for Baptist Health System in San Antonio, Texas which included 6 acute care hospitals, 1,700 beds, $1.5 billion in revenues and 6,500 employees. This market was routinely one of Tenet's most successful. There, prior to San Antonio, Trip served in a variety of important roles for both Tenet and Vanguard, including Senior Vice-President and Chief Development Officer, responsible for managing the operations the merger and acquisition functions and partnership efforts of the company companies. Trip holds a Bachelor of Arts and a Master in Business Administration both from Vanderbilt University.

Steward Health Care has also named John Polanowicz as its national, system-wide Chief Operating Officer with overall responsibility for the operations of the company's Hospital Services group. 

The announcement follows a recent national expansion of the Steward system and patient care model to encompass 36 hospital campuses in 10 states. Polanowicz will now oversee operations of those hospitals across the East, Central, and West divisions of the company.

Steward is a physician-led health care service organization that includes a rapidly growing physician network and the nation's largest privately operated hospital system. The Steward patient care model has been shown to improve outcomes and contain health care costs through the delivery of high quality, patient-centered care, and the use of new, proprietary technologies to improve patient health and the patient experience. 

Steward Health Care, the largest private hospital operator in the United States, is a physician-led health care services organization committed to providing the highest quality of care in the communities where patients live. Headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, Steward operates 36 community hospitals nationwide that employ approximately 37,000 people and regularly receive top awards for quality and safety. The Steward network includes more than 25 urgent care centers, 42 preferred skilled nursing facilities, substantial behavioral health services, over 7,300 beds under management, and approximately 1.5 million full risk covered lives through the company's managed care and health insurance services. The total number of paneled lives within Steward's integrated care network is projected to reach 3 million in 2018.

Steward's unique health care service delivery model leverages technology, innovation, and care coordination to keep patients healthier. With a culture that prioritizes agility, resourcefulness, and continuous improvement, Steward is recognized as one of the nation's leading accountable care organizations. The Steward Health Care Network includes thousands of physicians who help to provide more than 12 million patient encounters per year.  Steward Medical Group, the company's employed physician group, provides more than 4 million patient encounters per year. The Steward Hospital Group operates hospitals in Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Utah.

SOURCE Steward Health Care