Thompson Health CEO to retire in 2012

Will Astor//May 25, 2011//

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Thompson Health CEO Linda Farchione plans to retire, officials said Wednesday.

Centered on F.F. Thompson Hospital in Canandaigua, Thompson Health is Ontario County’s second largest employer. In addition to the hospital, the system includes the 188-bed M.M. Ewing Continuing Care Center, 84 independent apartments at Ferris Hills and 48 enriched living apartments at Clark Meadows and several Ontario County physician practices.

Farchione joined the Ontario County health system as vice president of nursing at F.F. Thompson in 1986 and has headed Thompson Health since 1991.

She plans to step down in a year, Farchione said. The 12-month lead time would give the system’s board adequate time to conduct a thorough search for her replacement, she said. It would also let her see through an ongoing $43 million expansion and renovation of the hospital and the installation of an electronic medical records system, both of which are slated to wrap up in 2012, Farchione added.

Under Farchione, the hospital managed a $35 million upgrade in the 1990s. It also became the first health care organization to win New York’s highest quality award, the Governor’s Award for Excellence. A registered nurse, Farchione presided over the system when F.F. Thompson won magnet designation from the American Nurse’s Credentialing Center.

The health system’s board plans shortly to begin a search for Farchione’s successor, involving a wide array of community groups in the process, Thompson Health board chairman William Kenyon said.

Health care reform played a role in Farchione’s decision to step down. To see currently underway federal reform initiatives through, a health system leader would have to be at the helm for at least the next seven or eight years, a longer commitment to the demanding job of running a health system than she is prepared to make at this stage of her life, she said.

Still, after retirement she would like to stay involved in health care in a yet to be determined capacity.

“I would hope that people would be interested in taking advantage of my skills,” Farchione said. Whether it would be consulting or something else I don’t know. Right now I’m just thinking about the next 12 months.”

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