Tufts Medical Center Names Michael Apkon as New CEO
Dr. Michael Apkon, currently the CEO of the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, will come to Boston in the fall as the new CEO of Tufts Medical Center.
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Tufts Medical Center is getting a new driver in the front seat. The hospital announced today that Dr. Michael Apkon will become the next chief executive officer at Tufts Medical Center and Floating Hospital for Children. He’s currently serving as president and CEO for the Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) in Toronto and will take over at Tufts in the fall.
While at SickKids, Apkon initiated efforts that reduced preventable patient harm by two-thirds in less than three years and expanded the hospital’s international consulting work, according to a press release. He is taking over for the current CEO, Dr. Michael Wagner, who is stepping down to become a chief physician at Tufts’ parent organization, Wellforce.
“Dr. Michael Apkon is uniquely qualified to take the helm of Tufts Medical Center at this exciting and dynamic time in health care,” Joe Campanelli, chairman of the board of directors at Tufts, said in a press release. “He has developed innovative systems, improved quality, and integrated new technologies—all while ensuring the patient is at the center of decision making over the course of his career.”
Apkon was, ironically enough, notified of the job opening when his daughter, a second-year medical student at Tufts, sent him the job posting after an internal email went out about the search for a new CEO.
“This is a wonderful homecoming for me,” the Framingham native said in a press release. “I am returning to a city my family and I love, to lead an organization I have long respected and admired.”
He was formerly the chief medical officer at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the executive director of Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital in Connecticut. Apkon said in a release that the Boston health care market is one of the most influential and he is honored to be chosen to lead the organization and to be a part of its growing and innovative system.
Apkon takes over at a time of some turmoil for Tufts. The hospital faced a nurses’ strike of more than 1,200 nurses in July of last year, which was ultimately settled in December.
Ranking among the top 10 heart transplant programs in the country for volume in 2016, Tufts Medical Center completed its 500th heart transplant this past June and is the largest heart transplant center in New England. The 415-bed academic medical center also serves as the principle teaching hospital for Tufts University.
