Fulton comes from OSF HealthCare, St. Joseph Medical Center in Illinois, the place she served as president and was chargeable for all day-to-day operations, offering market route and operationalizing system strategic aims, in response to a information launch from Maui Health Thursday morning.

Fulton will start her new place on Jan. 1. She replaces former CEO Michael Rembis, who retired in February.

Kerry Watson, a well being care govt from North Carolina, has been serving as interim CEO of Maui Health, a Kaiser Permanente affiliate, since mid-February. Maui Health’s group hospitals and outpatient clinics additionally embody Kula Hospital, Kula Clinic, Lanai Community Hospital, Maui Memorial Medical Center Outpatient Clinic and Maui Memorial Medical Center Wound Care and Hyperbaric Therapy.

Over the final 20 years, Fulton has held different key govt roles, together with chief working officer, chief compliance officer and president of OSF HealthCare Saint Luke Medical Center in Illinois, the information launch stated.

LYNN FULTON – Named CEO of Maui Health

“I am humbled and honored to be given the opportunity to serve these special islands of Maui and Lanai,” Fulton stated in a information launch. “I am committed to listening, learning, and working tirelessly to create a thriving healthcare system for the people of Maui County.”

Fulton couldn’t be reached for extra remark Thursday.

“Lynn brings a wealth of experience in community hospital operations and has successfully worked through many of the same challenges we currently face at Maui Health, leveraging similar opportunities to improve and expand services,” Clay Sutherland, a Maui Health board member and a lifelong Maui resident and enterprise chief, stated in a information launch. “Her people-first, community-centered philosophy has driven all of her incredible accomplishments over the last two decades and will be central to moving Maui Health into its next chapter of growth.”

Fulton, her husband and her daughter will relocate to Maui on the finish of this 12 months. As CEO, Fulton will concentrate on actively participating the Maui Health Board, senior administration crew, staff, doctor leaders, medical employees and the broader group “to develop a clear vision, strategic plan, and operating plan for the future of Maui Health,” the information launch stated.

Fulton is available in as CEO at a time when hospital employees have been elevating issues over pay and short-staffing, and authorities leaders and group members requested earlier this 12 months that Maui Health rent somebody ideally with native ties or data of the native well being care system.

A bunch describing themselves as “Citizens for Maui Health” had despatched a letter to the Maui County Council earlier this 12 months, asking members to undertake a decision demanding that the CEO search course of be clear and that the brand new CEO be “for the people of Maui” and never “a puppet for Kaiser Permanente.” The group stated it was made up of well being care suppliers at Maui Memorial.

One of the federal government leaders who supported a CEO with native ties or data was Central Maui state Rep. Troy Hashimoto. On Thursday he acknowledged his and the group’s choice however stated that hiring somebody who’s certified for the job comes at the start.

“Hopefully she can bring a new perspective in running Maui Health,” he stated. “Hopefully she will take the time to learn all the aspects of it and adapt to her new environment.”

Hashimoto stated sooner or later there must be some “give and take.”

But what he didn’t was for the board “to compromise quality” in searching for a brand new CEO.

Fulton should need to take care of a few of the identical points that plagued Rembis’ tenure.

Rembis joined Maui Health in 2017, shortly after the three hospitals transitioned from the state’s public hospital system to the newly created Maui Health System, and he handled fallout over the transition for years after.

He was on the helm when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and outbreaks amongst sufferers and employees on the hospital spawned criticism from employees and the group who have been pissed off over the hospitals’ insurance policies and the way they have been enforced.

Last 12 months, hospital staff held rallies to highlight pay and staffing points, and shortly after Rembis retired in February, almost 500 employees with the United Public Workers union launched a strike that led to April.

Fulton will oversee the brand new three-year contract between Maui Health and UPW that features pay-scale changes for all job classifications, no less than a ten.5 % wage enhance for all members and a lump sum cost for all members.

A UPW official stated in an e-mail Thursday afternoon that the union wouldn’t be capable of present a remark for the story.

The United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals, which represents about 850 members at Maui Health, didn’t reply to a request for touch upon Thursday.

* Staff Writer Melissa Tanji might be reached at mtanji@mauinews.com.