Three of Baptist’s top executives retire in 2023
MEMPHIS, Tenn., Oct. 31, 2023– Dr. Paul DePriest, executive vice president and chief operating officer; Bill Griffin, executive vice president and chief financial officer; and David Elliott, vice president and CEO of Baptist Health Services Group, have retired from Baptist Memorial Health Care, one of the largest providers of health care in the South, this fall.
DePriest retired on Sept. 30 and Griffin and Elliott retired on Oct. 31.
“Paul, Bill and David have made a huge impact on the success of Baptist and the advancement of quality care for the Mid-South," said Jason Little, president and CEO of Baptist Memorial Health Care. "Their leadership is unmatched and their influence on the health care industry extends well beyond Baptist and the walls of our hospitals. They leave patients healthier, providers more engaged and Baptist a stronger organization, and I wish them all the best in retirement.”
DePriest is the first physician to serve as chief operating officer for Baptist, and he has significantly advanced physician relations since joining the organization in 2012. During his decade with the organization, he has created an environment of excellence that has led to Baptist Memorial Hospital-Memphis being named the Best Regional Hospital in Memphis and Mississippi Baptist Medical Center being named the Best Regional Hospital in Mississippi by U.S. News & World Report. During DePriest’s tenure, Baptist has grown from a 14-hospital health care system to a 22-hospital system and developed a doctorate level program and college of osteopathic medicine at Baptist Health Sciences University. He has helped usher in an unrivaled system for performance enhancement, virtual medicine, medical education and electronic health records at Baptist.
Griffin has spent the past three decades in finance at Baptist and became the organization’s CFO in 2015. Since taking over that role, Griffin has restructured revenue streams; overseen financing for multiple mergers and acquisitions; developed a generous charity care program; advanced pricing transparency through an unrivaled, leading-edge Expense Navigator calculation system that helps patients understand hospital charges, out-of-pocket costs or co-pays and payment options; and developed an online system to comply with the government mandate to post chargemasters—a comprehensive list of charges for each inpatient and outpatient service provided by a hospital—for the health care system’s 22 hospitals. Griffin also created and oversaw the Baptist Revenue and Reimbursement Process, which ensured appropriate revenue and financial policy setting and adherence to government and industry regulations. Griffin helped the organization identify cost-savings and revenue opportunities during a period of changing financial reimbursements and navigate through a global pandemic, unprecedented supply chain challenges and extraordinary staffing expenses. He also served as Baptist’s privacy and security officer.
Not long after joining Baptist in 1997, Elliott was promoted to VP of managed care and CEO of Baptist Health Services Group in 2000. During his two-plus decades in this role, Elliott has championed physician reimbursement, diversity among insurance plans and greater access to quality health care and Baptist Memorial Health Care providers, practices and hospitals. Since 2000, Baptist Health Services Group has grown from approximately 2,500 physicians and more than 44 hospitals to 5,400 physicians and licensed providers and more than 50 hospitals in the tristate area.
Baptist Memorial Health Care is one of the country’s largest not-for-profit health care systems and the largest provider of Medicaid in the region. Baptist offers a full continuum of care to communities throughout the Mid-South and consistently ranks among the top integrated health care networks in the nation. The health care system comprises 22 affiliate hospitals in West Tennessee, North and Central Mississippi and East Arkansas; a freestanding emergency department; more than 5,400 affiliated physicians; Baptist Medical Group, a multispecialty physician group with more than 900 providers; home, hospice and psychiatric care; minor medical centers and clinics; a network of surgery, rehabilitation and other outpatient centers; and an education system highlighted by Baptist Health Sciences University (formerly Baptist College of Health Sciences). Baptist employs more than 20,000 people, and in fiscal year 2022 contributed more than $455 million in community benefit and uncompensated care to the communities it serves. For more information, please visit www.baptistonline.org or follow us on Facebook or Twitter.
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