Lancaster Regional Medical Center announced today it will be under new leadership as of Sept. 19.
Brooks Turkel, an executive with more than 20 years of leadership experience has been appointed market CEO.
In that role Turkel will oversee not just Lancaster Regional, but also help lead its sister hospital, Heart of Lancaster Regional Medical Center in Warwick Township.
Lancaster Regional and Heart of Lancaster are part of Tennessee-based Community Health Systems Inc., and they are owned in part by local physicians.
Although Turkel will oversee both hospitals as market CEO, Deborah Willwerth will remain CEO of Heart of Lancaster. The sister hospitals used to have one market CEO overseeing both, but in 2014 the health system hired two separate CEO’s – Willwerth for Heart of Lancaster and Russell Baxley for Lancaster Regional.
Baxley resigned on Sept. 2.
Turkel comes to Lancaster from Lackawanna County-based Regional hospital of Scranton, where he served as CEO of the 198-bed facility. Prior to that he was the CEO of Philadelphia-based Chestnut Hill Hospital.
He has a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Florida Atlantic University and an MBA in health care administration from the University of Miami.
Turkel’s education and his experience in leading other Pennsylvania hospitals is why he was selected to lead Lancaster Regional, according to Stephen Iovino, chairman of the Heart of Lancaster board of trustees.
“He has a record of building strong and lasting relationships with hospital staff, volunteers and physicians which support the delivery of personalized, quality healthcare,” Iovino said.
