Leadership

Joseph P. Ross

President & CEO
Meritus Health

Joseph P. Ross has nearly 35 years of experience in the health care industry. Before being named president and CEO of Meritus Health, he was president and CEO of Shore Health Syste

m of Maryland in Easton. During his more than 15 years at Shore Health, Mr. Ross created a system-wide approach through the merger of Memorial Hospital at Easton and Dorchester General Hospital. Prior to leading Shore Health System, Mr. Ross served as president and CEO of Mercy Medical Center in Oshkosh, Wis., for eight years. He holds a master's degree in hospital and health system administration from Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio, and is a fellow in the American College of Healthcare Executives (FACHE), a member of the executive committee of the Maryland Hospital Association, a member of the board of directors of the Terrapin Healthcare Insurance Company, a member of the board of directors of Leadership Maryland, a member of the Health Care CEO Roundtable and a member of the board of directors of the Mid-Shore Community Foundation. Mr. Ross is also a founding board member of Trivergent Health Alliance along with the CEOs of both Frederick Regional Health System and Western Maryland Health System.

Heather Lorenzo, MD

Vice President, Chief Medical Officer

Dr. Heather Lorenzo provided her expertise to Meritus Health in several capacities before becoming chief medical officer, including chief medical information officer, physician advisor to care management, and interim vice president of medical affairs. She completed her residency in internal medicine at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio and went on to become the chief of residents and associate program director for internal medicine residency at the David Grant Medical Center on the Travis Air Force Base in California. Since then Dr. Lorenzo has worked as a hospitalist at multiple Maryland hospitals, including Shady Grove Adventist and Montgomery General Hospital.

Carolyn Simonsen

Vice President, Chief Administrative Officer, Chief Compliance Officer

A nurse attorney with more than 30 years of healthcare experience, Carolyn Simonsen served as vice president of business integrity before being named chief compliance officer and vice president of audit and business integrity for Meritus Health. Over the course of her career, Ms. Simonsen has held a number of both management and staff positions in the areas of healthcare law, quality improvement, risk management, case management, cardiac rehabilitation, and critical care nursing. Prior to joining Meritus Health she was vice president of quality and care management at Holy Cross Hospital in Silver Spring, Maryland, where she provided planning and leadership for the organization's quality, safety, regulatory, and accreditation programs. Ms. Simonsen also served in the Navy Nurse Corps from 1971-1973. She is a member of the Maryland State Bar Association, the American Health Lawyers Association, and the National Association for Heal

thcare Quality.

Thomas Chan

Vice President, Chief Financial Officer

Tom Chan is responsible for the financial well-being of Meritus Health, represents Meritus Medical Center to the Health Services Cost Review Commission or HSCRC and other outside agencies and serves on Trivergent Health Alliance’s board of directors.

Mr. Chan’s longevity in the industry dates back to his start in health care in 1986, with his hospital experience beginning in 1994. He has more than 11 years of experience in Maryland’s health care rate setting system, most recently as vice president of finance management with Adventist HealthCare in Montgomery County, Md. There, he led centralized financial manag

ement for the entire five-hospital system, including reimbursement, managed care, supply chain, business analytics, business process improvement and tax, as well as served as the interim vice president and chief financial officer of Washington Adventist Hospital. During Mr. Chan’s time with Adventist Healthcare, he helped improve the company’s financial infrastructure, negotiated cost savings and hired key members of the finance team.

Lee Shaver

Vice President, Support Services

As vice president of support services for Meritus Health, Lee Shaver oversees materials management to include purchasing and distribution, environmental services, clinical engin

eering, security, mail room, and facilities engineering. Mr. Shaver has extensive experience in healthcare. Before his promotion to vice president, he worked as the executive director for supply chain and logistics for Meritus Health. His previous experience includes working as chief of operations and programming for the Air Force Medical Operations Agency in Ft. Detrick and the director of medical logistics at Wilford Hall Medical Center at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas. Mr. Shaver holds a master's degree in healthcare administration from Baylor University, is a member of Upsilon Phi Delta National Honor Society for Healthcare Administration, and he is a board certified healthcare executive as a fellow with the American College of Healthcare Executives.

Melanie M. Heuston

Vice President, Chief Nursing Off

icer

Melanie M. Heuston, D.N.P., RN, Meritus Health’s chief nursing officer, started her new position in late April. Melanie most recently served as director of nursing at UPMC Passavant in Pittsburgh, Pa., a 424-bed, tertiary care hospital that is part of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center or UPMC. There, she led a team of more than 800 nurses and co-led the Magnet journey for nursing. While in Pittsburgh, Dr. Heuston also taught graduate-level nursing students and served as preceptor for clinical experiences at the University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing as an adjunct faculty member. She received her doctorate in nursing practice and her master’s in nursing from the University of Pittsburgh and completed her doctoral residency at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, Ill. She is a certified nurse executive, holds a certificate in the Fundamentals of Magnet and is affiliated with the American Organization of Nurse Executives and American Nurses Association.

Amy Dilcher

Vice President, General Counsel

Amy Dilcher most recently worked as associate counsel in the office of the general counsel at the University of Maryland Medical System Corporation in Baltimore, Md., where she provided legal services to the 12-member health system with 115,000 annual patient admissions and gross patient revenues of $2 billion per year. Before that, Ms. Dilcher served as an associate for Proskauer Rose LLP in Washington, D.C., representing long-term care providers including nursing homes, assisted living facilities, home health agencies and intermediate care facilities and worked as a law clerk in the office of the senior vice president and general counsel a

t George Washington University also in Washington. Prior to her positions in law, Ms. Dilcher was a registered nurse at Georgetown University Hospital in Washington. She is a graduate of the University of Houston Law Center in Texas, and Howard University School of Law in Washington, D.C., and received her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of Pittsburgh in Pa.

Melinda Cannon

Vice President, Physician Services, Meritus Health

Melinda Cannon, RHIT, B.S.O.L., M.S.S.L., serves as the first vice president of physician services at Meritus Health. Ms. Cannon has more than 36 years of health care service, holding positions in case management, coding and utilization management, denial management, wound and hyperbaric medicine, hospitalist medicine, clinical pathways, data analysis and patient unit transport. She has an associate degree in registered health information and is accredited by the American Health Information Management Association. Ms. Cannon earned a bachelor’s in organization leadership and a master’s in strategic leadership, both from Mountain State in Beckley, W.Va. She has worked on national health policy studies in the area of hospital coding, holds a green belt in Six Sigma techniques for process improvement and has additional education in advanced case management, hyperbaric medicine and wound care, “Just Culture” and Kata and Lean initiatives.