Dr. Alan S. Kaplan, a nationally renowned health care leader with a proven track record of leading large-scale clinical and cultural transformation with a focus on care coordination, has been selected as the new chief executive officer of UW Health.
Kaplan’s appointment was approved by the UW Health board at a meeting today.
Kaplan currently serves as executive vice president and chief clinical transformation officer for UnityPoint Health in West Des Moines, Iowa. He is the founder and president/CEO of UnityPoint Clinic providing leadership for 1,300 providers. Kaplan also serves as president/CEO of UnityPoint at Home, a provider of home care, palliative, hospice and home infusion services. UnityPoint Health is a large, highly integrated network of hospitals, clinics, home care and health plan services. The nonprofit, which includes UnityPoint Health-Meriter, operates in Iowa, Illinois and Wisconsin.
“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.”
Kaplan is board-certified in emergency medicine. Prior to joining UnityPoint Health in 2009, he served as vice president and chief medical officer at Edward Health Services Corp. (EHSC), a health-care system based in Naperville, IL.
Kaplan received his medical degree from Rush University in Chicago in 1985 and a master’s in medical management from Carnegie Mellon University in 2000. He is a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives and a fellow of the American Association of Physician Leadership, where he had previously served as chairman of the board.
UW Health is the integrated health system of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, with 1400 physicians and 16,500 staff at six hospitals and 80 outpatient sites. It is governed by the UW Hospitals and Clinics Authority and partners with UW School of Medicine and Public Health to fulfill patient care, research, education and community-service missions.
Kaplan succeeds Dr. Jeffrey Grossman, who has served as interim CEO since July. Kaplan is expected to start in early May.
