Avera Health's President and Chief Executive John Porter said he plans to retire in December or when his successor is selected.
Porter
Porter, 69, has been with the Sioux Falls, S.D.-based health care system for more than four decades. He was pivotal in forming the system, encouraging its growth and supporting the development of innovative programs, said Sr. Mary Kay Panowicz, OSB, Avera System Members Chair. The six System Members, from the sponsoring Benedictine Sisters of Yankton and the Presentation Sisters of Aberdeen, provide direction to Avera Health.
In the 1970s, as legal counsel he helped form the structures for the Benedictine and Presentation health systems. He became executive vice president for the Presentation Health System in 1984 and its president and chief executive in 1989. In the late 1990s, he facilitated the process when the orders came together in a co-sponsorship model. He was named president and chief executive of the newly formed Avera Health in 2000 when the Benedictine and Presentation sisters brought their health ministries together, the system said.
He had led the system's development as an integrated care continuum. It currently has about 17,000 employees and physicians, with 330 locations in a five-state region.
Avera Health plans to form a search committee and work with an executive search company to recruit Porter's successor.
Copyright © 2018 by the Catholic Health Association
of the United States
For reprint permission, contact Betty Crosby or call (314) 253-3490.