CLAREMONT — Valley Regional Healthcare has hired Steve Gordon as the Claremont hospital’s new interim CEO.

Gordon, who retired last year after 11 years as Brattleboro (Vt.) Memorial Hospital’s CEO, began work in Claremont on Jan. 3. He replaces Dr. Jocelyn Caple, who retired Jan. 6.

Caple had served as Valley Regional’s CEO and chief medical officer since September 2020.

A former CEO and chief medical officer of Frisbie Memorial Hospital in Rochester, N.H., she took over from the previous interim CEO, Deanna Howard.

Howard, a former Dartmouth Health executive, had taken over in February 2019 after the previous CEO, Peter Wright, left for a job in Maine. Wright, now CEO of Northwestern Medical Center in St. Albans, Vt., was Valley Regional’s last permanent leader.

Gordon is expected to lead Valley Regional until a planned affiliation with Dartmouth Health is finalized, said Tim McNulty, Valley Regional’s senior director of human resources.

The affiliation is currently pending before the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Charitable Trusts Unit.

The affiliation, as proposed, would bring Valley Regional, which has 21 staffed beds and 350 employees, under the umbrella of the Lebanon-based DH, which includes five hospitals, a visiting nurse association and several clinics.

Under the affiliation, Valley Regional and Mt. Ascutney Hospital and Health Center, a current member of DH, would both be managed by Dr. Joseph Perras, who is now Mt. Ascutney’s CEO.

Caple was slated to serve as chief medical officer of both hospitals, according to plans announced in the fall. Following Caple’s departure, Valley Regional is currently working on filling the position of chief medical officer, McNulty said.

In the interim, those duties are being assumed by Dr. Juliann Barrett, president of the medical staff, and Dr. Joshua Rudner, vice president of the medical staff.

Gordon, a Bedford, N.H., resident, has spent about three decades in health care and hospital management, McNulty said.

Before going to Brattleboro, he was president of Good Samaritan Medical Center in Brockton, Mass., and chief administrative officer for Children’s Hospital Boston.

He previously served as a vice president at Newton-Wellesley Hospital and as CEO of Parkland Medical Center in Derry, N.H.

He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in environmental health engineering from Tufts University, as well as a master’s degree in hospital administration from the University of Minnesota.

Nora Doyle-Burr can be reached at ndoyleburr@vnews.com or 603-727-3213.

]]>