UnityPoint Health exec named chief executive officer of UW Health system

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Alan S. Kaplan, MD, the current executive vice president and chief clinical transformation officer for UnityPoint Health in West Des Moines, Iowa, has been appointed CEO of the UW Health system, UW Health announced Tuesday.

The appointment was approved by the UW Health Board Tuesday.

Kapan founded the UnityPoint Health Clinic and is also the president and CEO of that facility, leading approximately 1300 providers. Additionally, Kaplan is president/CEO of UnityPoint at Home, a home care, hospice, palliative and infusion service provider, UW Health said in a statement.

UnityPoint Health is a network of hospitals, clinics, home care and health plan services. It includes the non-profit UnityPoint Health-Meriter, and operates in Iowa, Illinois and Wisconsin.

Kaplan is board certified in emergency medicine, and prior to beginning his tenure at UnityPoint, served as vice president and chief medical officer at Edward Health Services Corp, a Naperville, Illinois-based healthcare system.

"Dr. Kaplan's outstanding record of driving and managing change and integration will be of great value to UW Health as we move forward towards becoming a more fully integrated academic health-care system devoted to seamless care centered around our patients," said Dr. Robert Golden, dean of the UW School of Medicine and Public Health and chair of the executive search committee. "He is a change agent who has successfully transformed clinical care in several different settings and I look forward to his leading UW Health on a similar journey."

UW Health is the integrated health system of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and is comprised of 1,400 physicians and 16,500 staff who operate six hospitals and 80 outpatient facilities. They partner with UW School of Medicine and Public Health to execute patient care, research, education and other initiatives.

Kaplan will be stepping in for interim CEO Dr. Jeffrey Grossman, and will start his new position in early May.

Twitter: @BethJSanborn