Adena Health System Interim President and CEO Dr. John Fortney has announced that Lisa Carlson has been named chief financial Officer, effective Monday.
Carlson joined Adena in fall 2016 as a contracted interim CFO. A career health care financial expert, she has led Adena’s positive financial results over the past two quarters. Carlson is also credited with quickly identifying opportunities for improvement within Adena’s revenue cycle (the administrative and clinical functions that contribute to the capture, management and collection of patient service revenue). In a short time, she has taken decisive action and with a team of hospital finance consultants working with Adena finance managers, is undertaking a long-term project to fix the much talked about “billing issues” that many Adena patients have experienced.
“I’m thrilled that Lisa has agreed to stay on as our permanent chief financial officer,” said Fortney. “Lisa has a breadth of expertise in health care finance, and demonstrates a strong ability to lead her team to get positive results.”
In addition to identifying and executing a plan to get to the root of “billing issues,” Carlson is also credited with developing the plan to acquire bond financing to support not only Adena’s emergency department expansion project, but to also refinance existing debt at a much lower interest rate. These lower interest rates will save the health system over $14 million over the course of the life of the 30-year bonds.
Prior to joining Tatum as a consultant in 2013, Carlson served in the role of CFO at Sanford Health, a large rural integrated delivery system covering North and South Dakota, Minnesota and Iowa. Previously, she served as CFO for a large North Dakota physician group, and served in various other health care finance roles including: controller; vice president-business Decision Support; Assistant Administrator for Finance; and Financial Planning Manager. Carlson earned her degree in accounting from Minnesota State University, and certification as a Certified Public Accountant (CPA), as well as certification of clinical leadership from the College of St. Thomas Clinical Leadership Academy.
Fortney added, “I am fully confident that the improvements Lisa and her team are making will be long lasting; and will result in a better and easier billing experience for our patients, as well as in Adena’s abilities to meet the health care needs of our community.”
Submitted by Maria Smith, director corporate communications, Adena Health System.
