Amid restructuring, longtime Dignity Health exec to retire as head of Sacramento division
Laurie Harting, a longtime leader of the Greater Sacramento Division of Dignity Health, will be retiring Jan. 3 as part of a reorganization of corporate parent CommonSpirit Health.
Marvin O’Quinn, president and chief operating officer for CommonSpirit, praised Harting in a news release issued Thursday, saying: “The contributions Laurie Harting has made to our ministry and our communities cannot be measured.”
Harting was not available for comment Thursday. She had a 23-year tenure with Dignity Health, starting before the nonprofit health organization merged with Catholic Health Initiatives to form CommonSpirit early last year.
Over her tenure, Harting greatly improved metrics for patient experience, employee engagement and quality. She started her career as a staff nurse at St. Bernardine in Southern California but leaves as president and chief executive officer of Dignity’s Greater Sacramento Division.
The local unit now will be run by Dr. Todd Strumwasser, president of Dignity’s Northern California Division. An anesthesiologist, Strumwasser spent 27 years at Swedish Health Services in Seattle as chief of staff, chief operating officer and CEO before taking his current position, which he has held for nearly six years.
Dignity executives described him as “a physician executive with strength in building high-performing teams with an emphasis on patient safety, quality, operations and strategy.”
O’Quinn said the CommonSpirit restructuring is focused on standardizing best practices and improving health care delivery. CommonSpirit will transition to seven operating divisions from 11 starting Jan. 3.
“By managing the operations in our communities together in an even more closely coordinated way,” O’Quinn stated, “we will be able to better leverage our resources to continue to deliver innovative care to the communities we serve, scale our clinical best practices, and pursue growth opportunities that help us have an even greater impact.”
