(LISTEN): Boone Hospital Center’s new chief executive officer is praised by board

By Zimmer Communications
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Boone Health
An outside photo of Columbia’s Boone Hospital (2021 file photo courtesy of Boone Hospital)

Boone County’s sixth-largest employer has a new chief executive officer.

Brady Debois started this week. Boone Hospital Center’s board of trustees chair Dr. Jerry Kennett describes their new CEO as extremely intelligent and detail-oriented.

“The main thing is about Brady is he’s had experience at both not-for-profit and for-profit hospitals. He actually worked at Mosaic in St. Joe (northwest Missouri’s St. Joseph) for several years, was president of the hospital there,” Dr. Kennett says.

St. Joseph-based Mosaic Life Care is a physician-led health system that serves 35 counties in northwest Missouri, northeast Kansas, southeast Nebraska and southwest Iowa. Columbia Regional Economic Development Incorporated (REDI)’s 2023 statistics show Boone Hospital Center has approximately 1,581 employees.

Meantime, St. Louis-based BJC HealthCare and Kansas City-based St. Luke’s will be merging in January. 939 the Eagle’s Fred Parry reports their merger will form a $10-billion system with 28 hospitals. Fred’s guest tomorrow (Saturday) morning on 939 the Eagle’s “CEO Roundtable” will be Dr. Kennett. He’ll be discussing numerous topics on the program, including the merger.

“St. Luke’s is being pressured tremendously by KU Medical Center, they’ve hurt them. So I think they’ve probably lost some market share over to KU, in fact I’m sure they have. So that was their incentive. BJC’s incentive is to get larger and be able to do managed care contracts across the state. Now what would it do to central Missouri? It would certainly affect Boone (Hospital) if MU Health Care became part of that,” says Dr. Kennett.

Kansas City television station KMBC reports St. Luke’s is the second-largest health care provider in Kansas City, while BJC is the St. Louis area’s largest health system. Dr. Kennett will join Fred Parry in-studio from 7-8 tomorrow morning on 939 the Eagle’s “CEO Roundtable.”