BOISE, Idaho — Chris Roth is the new president and chief executive officer of St. Luke’s Health System, according to a news release sent to media outlets Tuesday morning.
The long-time St. Luke’s executive transitioned to the top position at Idaho’s large health-care organization on Feb. 1, 2020.
The St. Luke’s Health System Board of Directors selected Roth to replace Dr. David C. Pate, who retired at the end of January after serving as president and CEO for more than ten years.
Roth said, “I appreciate the immense opportunity and responsibility I have as the new president and chief executive officer of this incredible organization. I am passionate about our mission of improving health throughout the communities we are privileged to serve, and I am proud to be part of such an amazing team of caring professionals.”
Roth has more than thirty years’ experience in health care, starting as a pharmacy technician with Intermountain Healthcare and moving into positions of increasing responsibility in administration, specialty practice management and executive and leadership positions with Northwest Hospital and Medical Center in Seattle, Ochsner Health System in New Orleans, and other health organizations. He joined St. Luke’s in early 2007, when the organization had been a health system for less than six months.
Roth served at St. Luke’s first as vice president and chief operating officer and then as chief executive officer of the Treasure Valley region, responsible for region-wide health care operations encompassing the Treasure Valley and West Treasure Valley communities of Fruitland, Meridian and Eagle. His responsibilities there included oversight of St. Luke’s Eastern Oregon operations.
Roth subsequently was promoted by Pate to the position of senior vice president and chief operating officer for the health system before being selected as the new president and CEO.
“Chris is a change leader and a relationship-builder,” St. Luke’s Health System Board of Directors Chairman Rich Raimondi said. “He is well tested, ethical and highly committed to our organization, our people and our vision of health-care transformation.”
When Dr. Pate announced his retirement, Raimondi said, the board weighed options for internal succession and external recruitment. They assessed highly skilled and talented potential successors before determining St. Luke’s would be best served with Roth as its new leader.
A community institution since 1902, St. Luke’s is the only not-for-profit health system based in Idaho. It’s also Idaho’s largest private employer with 14,830 employees at eight hospitals, St. Luke’s Children’s, a nationally-recognized cancer center, more than 200 clinics throughout southern Idaho and into eastern Oregon, and the region’s first virtual care center.
(photo courtesy: St. Luke’s Health System)
