Release: Immediately
Contact: Christina Boyd, 762-2331 or christina.boyd@nyuhs.org
May 25, 2017

UHS announces new senior leadership roles

Today UHS of Greater Binghamton, N.Y., is announcing an upcoming change in key senior management roles at the locally owned healthcare system. The change in responsibilities was approved May 24 at the UHS Board of Directors’ annual meeting.

Matthew J. Salanger, FACHE, will transition out of his role as president and chief executive officer of UHS Hospitals, effective June 1, 2017, and his role as president and CEO of the UHS System, effective Jan. 1, 2018, to become a part-time senior strategic advisor to the organization. He will also continue to serve on the board and its executive committee.

Click here to download photo of Mr. Salanger.

John M. Carrigg, executive vice president and chief operating officer since 2013, has been appointed president and CEO of UHS Hospitals, effective June 1, 2017, and president and CEO of the full System, effective Jan. 1, 2018.

Click here to download photo of Mr. Carrigg.

“These changes are part of a senior leadership succession plan that has been two years in the making,” said Jerome J. Canny, chairman of the board of the not-for-profit system. “We will be promoting from within someone who is uniquely qualified to be the new CEO, and will continue to benefit from our current president’s insights and counsel. That will ensure the long-term stability, strength and continuity of UHS as we continue to serve the healthcare needs of the Southern Tier.”

Mr. Salanger is the organization’s longest-serving CEO since three community hospitals consolidated in 1981 to form UHS. His predecessors were Byron Irwin, Gennaro Vasile, Mark O’Neil and Peter McGinn.

A Syracuse, N.Y., native, Mr. Salanger joined UHS in 1985, serving in a number of managerial capacities, including assistant vice president, associate vice president, vice president for Operations and director of UHS Binghamton General Hospital, and executive vice president and chief operating officer of UHS Hospitals.

In 1994 he was named president and CEO of UHS Hospitals, and in 2007 additionally became president and CEO of the UHS System, which provides hospital and related healthcare services to communities in Broome and surrounding counties in upstate New York.

Prior to joining UHS, Mr. Salanger worked for such institutions as Cincinnati General Hospital in Ohio, Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, and, in Syracuse, for St. Camillus Health and Rehabilitation Center and SUNY Upstate Medical University. He received a bachelor’s degree from the State University of New York at Albany in 1977 and a master’s in hospital and health administration from Xavier University in Cincinnati in 1982.

During his decade-long tenure as CEO, Mr. Salanger guided the UHS organization through its most assertive and transformational period of integration, bringing together several hospitals, services and practice locations into one cohesive system with a unified vision and purpose.

In addition, he led the system in its development of a number of innovative projects, including the creation of UHS Vestal and the UHS Orthopedic Center on the Vestal Parkway, an ambulatory surgery center and pharmacy at Wilson Place, a UHS Home Care facility at 601 Riverside Drive in Johnson City, additional primary care offices throughout the Southern Tier, the launching of the UHS Heart & Vascular Institute and the expansion of neurosciences, pain management and cancer care.

Through Mr. Salanger’s leadership, all portions of the UHS system began operating under one strategic plan and, in spite of the difficulties in recruiting doctors to upstate New York, the size of UHS’ affiliated medical group has doubled in the past decade. UHS also has partnered with Binghamton University to support its development of a new pharmacy school and in conceptualizing a health and cultural district in Johnson City.

“Mr. Salanger’s leadership skills, his capacity to build meaningful partnerships with physician groups and his ultimate commitment to doing what is right for our patients has positioned UHS as an exceptional healthcare resource for the Southern Tier,” Mr. Canny said. “Our organization is in the best possible position we have ever been in for this kind of transition to take place.”

Mr. Salanger said: “I believe the time is right for this leadership change to occur. I have long been convinced that it’s important for succession at the top to happen in an orderly fashion, after careful planning and sound consideration, with the long-term stewardship of the organization being the first priority. On a personal note, I look forward to having more time for family, travel and volunteering, while still maintaining a stakeholder interest in the continued success of UHS.

Continuing, he said: “The appointment of a strong, proven leader from within the organization, which Mr. Carrigg surely is, will give our system the seamless continuity we need, and I look forward to working with him in my new senior advisory role.”

Mr. Carrigg is a Binghamton-area native who graduated from St. Andrew’s College in North Carolina and earned a master of business administration degree from the State University of New York at Binghamton. At UHS he has served as vice president for Operations and director of UHS Binghamton General Hospital, senior vice president and COO of UHS Hospitals, and executive vice president and COO of the UHS System.

“Mr. Salanger and I have worked closely together and share the same vision for the future direction of our organization,” Mr. Carrigg said. “I look forward to the new challenges and opportunities that UHS will encounter in this decade and beyond, and am grateful to Matt for staying on in a strategy
role from which the entire system will benefit.”

The UHS System is composed of UHS Hospitals (UHS Wilson Medical Center and UHS Binghamton General Hospital), UHS Chenango Memorial Hospital, UHS Delaware Valley Hospital, UHS Senior Living at Ideal, UHS Home Care, the UHS Medical Group and the UHS Foundation.

Serving a seven-county region, UHS is one of the largest and most comprehensive systems in upstate New York and an economic engine with a total community impact exceeding $1 billion a year. An 896-bed organization, UHS provides a wide range of medical, surgical, rehabilitative and long-term care services from 60 locations. With a workforce of over 6,000, it is the largest employer in New York’s Southern Tier and the workplace of a 392-provider multi-specialty medical group and a 550- member medical staff.