Leadership
Joseph P. Ross
President and Chief Executive Officer
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 System 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, M.D.
Vice President and 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 and Chief Administrative 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 Healthcare Quality.
Thomas Chan
Vice President and 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
management 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.
A. Lee Shaver Jr.
Vice President, Professional Support Services
As vice president of support services for Meritus Health, Lee Shaver oversees
materials management to include purchasing and distribution, environmental
services, clinical engineering, 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, D.N.P.
Vice President and Chief Nursing Officer
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 and 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 at 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
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.
Carrie Adams, Pharm.D.
Vice President and Chief Transformation Officer
Carrie Adams, Pharm.D., is the vice president and chief transformation
officer or CTO, overseeing operations improvement, clinical informatics
and the new electronic health record or EHR conversion. Previously, she
was the corporate director of pharmacy services at Trivergent Health Alliance
MSO, in which Meritus is an affiliated organization. There, she successfully
aligned and implemented best practice pharmacy models and led drug utilization
initiatives for a cumulative, three-year savings of $11 million. She completed
her bachelor’s in pharmaceutical sciences at Ohio Northern University
in Ada, Ohio, and her doctorate at Shenandoah University in Winchester,
Va. She is a certified green belt in Six Sigma.