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Two major Portland health systems are getting new chiefs.
Monday was the first day for Dr. Susan Huang as president and CEO of Legacy Health. Meanwhile, Oregon Health & Science University just named a new chief executive, Amy Shlossman, to oversee its hospital and clinics beginning this summer.
Both women assume command of multibillion-dollar institutions responsible for the health and well-being—not to mention employment—for much of the population of Oregon and Southwest Washington. Both will be tasked with managing skyrocketing institutional costs while keeping unions, a fatigued physician core, and the public contented.
Huang, a dermatologist and former Providence executive, replaces interim CEO Dr. George Brown, a former longtime Legacy CEO who had returned in 2024 to lead the institution.
OHSU also at one point relied on old hands to keep its health system running while it struggled to fill the position permanently.
The process wasn’t pretty, In two-plus years of searching, the health system cycled through several interim chiefs—most recently chief medical officer Renee Edwards and before that Tim Goldfarb. A short-lived permanent CEO, Tarek Salaway, lasted a little over three months before, in an ugly episode, being abruptly fired early this year by OHSU president Shereef Elnahal.
Shlossman, a Baltimore hospital executive, appears to have been a candidate alongside Salaway. She was selected, Elnahal said in an announcement Friday, based on her participation in a prior national search and an additional round of interviews and reference checks.
Shlossman has Oregon ties. She was the CEO of the American Red Cross of Oregon and Washington before a career as a hospital executive. Elnahal in his announcement credited her with a “significant operational turnaround” at Baltimore’s Sinai Hospital, where patient safety rankings went from last in Maryland to first.
Shlossman’s first day is set for Aug. 31. Her annual salary will be $1.4 million, an OHSU spokesperson says.
A Legacy Health spokesperson said the system was not releasing Huang’s compensation. Since Legacy is a nonprofit, presumably the figure will be reported in public tax forms down the line.
