A new leader is taking the helm of the nation’s oldest hospital, in a health system trying to bring emerging therapies and adapt new payment models.
Theresa Larivee, a long-time hospital finance administrator, has been named executive director of Pennsylvania Hospital, a part of the University of Pennsylvania Health System.
The 450-bed hospital was founded in 1751 by Benjamin Franklin and surgeon Thomas Bond, the “father of clinical medicine” in the Americas, and for the past four years was directed by R. Michael Buckley, MD, an infectious disease specialist who is retiring after almost 40 years at the health system.
Larivee joined the Penn Medicine system as VP of financial operations and budget in 2008 after working for two years as senior VP and chief financial officer at the Fox Chase Cancer Center. Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, she worked in finance Columbia University Medical Center, eventually becoming deputy VP and working on an initiative to expand the health system beyond New York.
"Already an integral member of the health system, Theresa's leadership skills, strategic vision and management expertise make her an excellent choice to continue Pennsylvania Hospital's success and growth," said Garry Scheib, Penn Medicine’s COO.
At Penn over the past few years, Scheib said, Larivee helped set up a “system-wide strategic analytical team” focused on business assessment, and helped orchestrate “an operational and fiscal turnaround and structural reorganization” at the medical school.
“Theresa’s collaborative leadership style has allowed her to work across all UPHS entities and instill a culture of cooperation, and communication,” said Ralph Muller, Penn Medicine’s CEO. “We’re confident the tradition of excellence at the nation’s first hospital will be in good hands.”
In terms of beds, clinical offerings and research, Pennsylvania Hospital is slightly smaller than Penn’s flagship, 695-bed Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. But it is still a major tertiary and teaching hospital for greater Philadelphia, with an emphasis on otolaryngology and head and neck surgery.
Pennsylvania Hospital is home to a number of new developments as part of $61 million improvement plan, including Philadelphia’s first all-private maternity suite, and it’s also a key link in Penn Medicine’s overall evolution — from emerging personalized cellular therapies to new payment experiments, such as a reference pricing and research agreement with Independence Blue Cross to study the cost-effectiveness of proton-beam radiation therapy in cancer.