Mercy General CEO Edmundo Castañeda’s exit spurs change in leadership at 3 local hospitals
Edmundo Castañeda will be leaving his positions as president and chief executive officer of Sacramento’s Mercy General Hospital and Woodland Memorial Hospital later this month to take on a leadership role at a prominent Dallas hospital.
“Edmundo has been a valuable and well-respected member of our team and our community and will be deeply missed,” said Dr. Todd Strumwasser, Northern California division president for CommonSpirit Health.
Strumwasser has put in a new leadership team to succeed Castañeda, noting that its three members together have decades of experience on the clinical and operations side of medicine.
Dr. Brian Evans, now president and CEO of Mercy Hospital of Folsom and Grass Valley’s Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital, will take the reins as Mercy General’s president and CEO. He will continue to lead Mercy Folsom but is giving up leadership of Sierra Nevada Memorial. Evans has led Sierra Nevada Memorial since December 2018 and took the helm at Mercy Folsom earlier this year.
Dr. Gregory Eberhart, the chief medical officer of Mercy San Juan Medical Center, becomes interim president and CEO at the Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital. A cardiologist, Eberhart is a former commander in the U.S. Navy and served in a number of leadership roles aboard the hospital ship USNS Mercy.
Gena Bravo has been the chief operations officer and chief nurse executive at Woodland Memorial Hospital, and she will now take on the role of interim president and CEO. Bravo was a longtime nursing leader at Mercy General, where she oversaw the financial and operational areas of nursing care, quality management, regulatory affairs and patient experience.
In January, Castañeda will become executive vice president and chief operating officer of Parkland Health & Hospital System in Dallas. Parkland is perhaps best known nationally as the hospital where President John F. Kennedy, Lee Harvey Oswald and Jack Ruby died or were pronounced dead.
In a Parkland news release, Castañeda said: “Parkland is noted for being one of the best public health systems in the country. I’m looking forward to joining the leadership team and serving the residents of Dallas County. It’s a time of great opportunity as well as challenges for the health system as it fulfills its mission of providing quality healthcare to all of the community, regardless of socioeconomic status.”
The Dignity leadership transition will be effective Nov. 25.
This story was originally published November 10, 2021 at 3:34 PM.
