Published: August 14, 2008 09:15 am      

SMGS president announces retirement

By TESA CULLI

tesa.culli@register-news.com

MT. VERNON — Leo Childers, president of St. Mary’s Good Samaritan Hospital, announced he will be retiring effective at the end of the month.

Childers, who has served as president for almost 15 years, made the announcement Wednesday, at which time the hospital announced that Mike Warren, vice president of clinical development for St. Mary’s Good Samaritan, Inc., will be the interim president and will begin working with Childers immediately in implementing the transition.

Childers has been a health care administrator for more than 35 years, serving as president of Saint Eugene Community Hospital in Dillon, S.C., as vice president for professional services and associate administrator at Southhampton Memorial Hospital in Franklin, Va.; and administration positions at various military hospitals while serving as a captain in the U.S. Air Force Medical Service Corps.

He has served on numerous work-related boards and associations including the American College of Healthcare Executives and the College’s Regent’s Advisory Council, as a member of the American Hospital Association; the Catholic Health Association; the Illinois Hospital Association and the Policy Council and Patient Safety Steering Council of the Illinois Hospital Association.

Childers, who could not be reached for comment, has also been active within the community over the years, serving on the Rend Lake College Foundation Board of Directors, as a member of the board of directors of the Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce, the American Red Cross, the Southern Illinois Workforce Investment Board and the board of Old National Bank. He is a member of Rotary and American Legion Post 32. He is a past member of the board of directors for the United Way and Mt. Vernon Rotary Club. Childers is the current president of the Jefferson County Development Corporation.

Under Childers’ leadership, the hospital has implemented a cardiovascular surgery program at the hospital and been successful at recruiting physicians to the St. Mary’s Good Samaritan, according to information from the hospital. Childers has also been working with the Illinois Department of Public Health providing the information and planning necessary to apply for the hospital to build a new facility on Veterans Memorial Drive.

“Leo’s leadership has been instrumental in the planning and preparation of the new Good Samaritan replacement hospital, medical office building and outpatient surgery center, interim regional president/CEO of St. Mary’s Good Samaritan, Inc., stated. “He will be greatly missed not only at Good Samaritan, but throughout the SSM Health Care System.”

Warren, who has been with St. Mary’s Good Samaritan Hospital since 1986, was the director of St. John Medical Center in Steubenville, Ohio for nine years prior to coming to the King City.