Sierra Health exec resigns

Thursday, Jan. 13, 2000 | 10:45 a.m.

The Vancouver Clinic of Vancouver, Wash., has hired a new executive director from Las Vegas to manage its business operations.

Tom VanSweringen, who has served as vice-president and chief operating officer of Southwest Medical Associates Inc. of Las Vegas and is president of Sierra Medical Management of Baltimore, will assume the position starting Jan. 31.

Both Southwest Medical and Sierra Medical are subsidiaries of Las Vegas-based Sierra Health Services Inc.

"He has been with the company for 10 years now and is leaving because he has had the desire to relocate to the Northwest for sometime and this is a perfect opportunity for him," Peter O'Neill, Sierra's vice president of public and investor relations, said of VanSweringen.

"We are now in the process of evaluating several in-house candidates (as his replacement) who have demonstrated strong leadership skills and have been with the company for some time, as this would allow for a seamless transition," he said.

VanSweringen will manage day-to-day operations of the 530-employee Vancouver Clinic, lead a physician recruitment effort, handle the clinic's contractual negotiations and maintain relations with Southwest Washington Medical Center.

The Vancouver Clinic, which has four clinics in Vancouver and provides outpatient medical services for Clark County in Washington, is a subsidiary of Phycor Inc. of Nashville, Tenn., a multi-speciality physician group practice.