NORTH ADAMS -- Northern Berkshire Healthcare has tapped the chief operating officer and administrator of Leonard Morse Hospital in Natick to be its next CEO and president.
Timothy P. Jones, of Andover, who has served since 2007 at MetroWest Medical Center's Leonard Morse Hospital, will join NBH by mid-September.
"We're very excited to finally make this announcement. We completed our search in May and made him an offer, but haven't been able to share the news until now," Dr. Arthur Turton, chairman of the NBH Board of Trustees, said in a telephone interview Thursday.
Interim CEO and President William Turton, who stepped into the role last year on a temporary basis, will remain on until Jones arrives.
"I am humbled and honored to have been chosen to lead NBH," Jones said in a release. "I am also very excited about our future and look forward to working with our team to provide exceptional care to our patients well into the future. My wife, Gina, and I look forward to joining the vibrant Berkshire community."
He added, "I have spent much of my professional career focused on safety and working with teams. I am focused on creating teams that understand how to improve and create exceptional outcomes for our patients."
Turton said Jones was one of two finalists for the position and was unanimously selected by an internal search committee made up of hospital physicians, staff members, union representatives and community
"I think what really made him stand out was his background," he said. "He has a very strong background in performance improvement techniques used in institutions. ... While our quality indicators are very high, we felt that we haven't had expertise in this area. Also, his personality and management style, from what we can tell through interviews and references, is wonderful. We have heard he has excellent relationships with hospital physicians and staff, and unions leaders. He seems to have a very easy and comfortable communication style, which makes us think he'll be a very effective spokesperson for us."
Jones earned a master's degree in business education from California State University.
His career in health care has included positions in California and Massachusetts, including administrative director of St. Elizabeth's Medical Center in Boston.
He serves on the boards of the Mass achusetts Bay Com mu nity College Foundation and the MetroWest Account able Health Organization.
Turton said the search for the new CEO and president began at the national level with the assistance of a search firm.
"We began by hiring a search firm that looked at a number of people for us and narrowed the field down to six candidates," Turton said. "All six candidates were very strong and met all of the criteria we had established for the position."
The criteria, he said, were culled together following a series of interviews with hospital physicians, employees, NBH trustees and community members to determine what qualifications and qualities the new CEO should have.
"We had one search committee that conducted formal interviews with the six candidates and narrowed it down to two," he said. "We then had those two candidates return for interviews with a different search committee. What was really nice was that both groups felt the same way about the two finalists. They all said the same thing, that they felt Tim really stood out. There wasn't any controversy. Everybody really felt he was the stronger candidate."
Jones and his wife, Gina, have four children, ranging in age from 15 to 24.
To reach Jennifer Huberdeau, email
jhuberdeau@thetranscript.com.
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