Tom Harlan, a senior health care executive for more than 35 years, has been named Chief Executive Officer of Palm Drive Hospital with the unanimous vote of the Palm Drive Health Care District Board.
Harlan, 66, is expected to start at Palm Drive on Sept. 4. He most recently has been engaged as principal at Harlan Healthcare Consulting in Orinda and later Sebastopol. Before that, he served for nine years as President and Chief Administrative Officer of John Muir Medical Center-Concord Campus (formerly Mt. Diablo Medical Center) a $320 million, 254-bed community hospital in Concord.
Harlan is credited with the successful financial turnaround of the Concord hospital, developing a long-range master plan that led to a $170 million construction project, and overseeing a facility that became ranked as one of the top five hospitals in California for cardiac surgery.
While at John Muir, he received The American College of Healthcare Executives Senior Leadership Award, which recognized his outstanding leadership throughout his career.
Ken Anderson, then CEO of John Muir Health, said that “Tom took the chief administrative officer job at Mt. Diablo Hospital during a time of crisis and was able to set a tone of both understanding and honesty that earned him the trust of the physicians and employees,” according to a newsletter of the Society of Professionals in Healthcare .
“Tom is a highly regarded hospital executive,” said Nancy Dobbs, president of the Palm Drive Health Care District Board. “His experience in the East Bay working with partnering hospitals will stand us in good stead as our relationship with Marin General matures and continues to bring both hospitals value and benefit.”
Prior to joining John Muir, Harlan served eight years as Chief Executive Officer at Chinese Hospital and Chinese Community Health Plan in San Francisco and 18 years as a senior executive at Pacific Presbyterian Medical Center (now California Pacific Medical Center) in San Francisco. He graduated with an MBA with Honors from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business with concentrations in Hospital Administration and Finance after completing military service as an officer in the US Army Medical Service Corps.
Harlan moved to Sebastopol in 2011 to continue health care consulting and further pursue an interest in viticulture and wine making. He and his wife, Ruth Harlan, are proprietors of August Truth, a small production boutique wine brand founded in 2007 and specializing in Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.
Harlan will receive a salary of $237,000 a year. He takes over the reins from Rick Reid, who has served as Interim Chief Executive Officer since March. Reid is also the hospital’s Chief Financial Officer and will continue in that position.
“I’m delighted to be joining Palm Drive Hospital, a tremendous regional resource,” Harlan said. “I am committed to striving for excellence and creating value through focus on caring, continuous improvement, innovation and accountability. These will be key drivers for Palm Drive’s continued success and its ongoing growth and development.”
Palm Drive Hospital is an independent health care district, managed by a five-member publicly elected board, and the only 24-hour acute-care facility in western Sonoma County. It has 37 licensed beds, 270 employees, and annual revenues of about $30 million a year.
It is affiliated with Marin General Hospital, based in Greenbrae, and Sonoma Valley Hospital in Sonoma.
