Guthrie MD, CEO Dr. Joseph A. Scopelliti announces plan for 2021 retirement

President and Chief Executive Officer at Guthrie Clinic, Dr. Joseph A. Scopelliti announced on Tuesday that he was starting the transition into retirement.

“Leading this organization has been both my greatest challenge and most rewarding accomplishment,” he said, “I will forever be grateful to my mentors and those individuals who have supported the organization with their time and charitable giving, and for the support demonstrated throughout my tenure by every individual on the Guthrie team.”

According to Tuesday’s press release from Guthrie, “before ascending to the single CEO in 2012, he held many leadership roles within the organization, including Co-CEO of the health system, President and CEO of the medical group, President of the RPH Medical Staff, and Vice-President for Clinical Affairs for the medical group.”

Highlights from his 41 years of service with the medical group include: being referenced as a model of success by Atul Gawande, Donald Berwick, Elliott Fisher and Mark McClellan in a New York Times Op-Ed article entitled “10 Steps to Better Health Care” in 2009, overseeing the opening of Troy Community Hospital and Corning Hospital, the technologically advanced intensive care and heart and vascular units at Robert Packer Hospital, and several more medical centers in the area, his involvement with the partnerships made with Mayo Clinic Care Network and the Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine, among many accounts of high-quality care, earning national acclaim.

“The system has been recognized for exceptional clinical quality with seven top 100 hospital awards, five top 100 performance improvement leader recognitions, two top 50 health care system awards based on low cost and high quality care, and two Everest Awards from Thomson Reuters for demonstrating exceptional performance improvement,” read the press release, “Additionally, Guthrie’s Robert Packer Hospital has been named to the IBM Watson Top 50 for Cardiovascular Care list 11 times, most recently in 2019.”

Dr. Scopelliti first joined Guthrie back in 1984 following his Guthrie residency and fellowship, which began in 1979, according to the press release.

“I am planning to retire in the latter half of 2021, somewhere between July and December,” he said.

He said that until then, he will continue to practice as a gastroenterologist at the Guthrie Clinic.

Dr. Scopelliti said that he timed his retirement in a way that won’t interfere with Guthrie’s standards for high-quality patient care during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

“This is a complex time and it wouldn’t be fair for someone to land in a new position during this,” he said, “It would be unsettling to the organization. It’s important for me to have that stability for the organization, and, more importantly, for our community, as we are responsible for their health and well-being.”

“He leaves big shoes for us to fill,” said Johanna Ames, current member of the board of directors for Guthrie and the chair of the search committee for Dr. Scopelliti’s successor.

The Guthrie board of directors hired WittKieffer, a renowned leader in health care executive search, to help out with finding a worthy successor.

“We’re launching a comprehensive search that will consider both internal and external candidates,” she said.

Dr. Scopelliti noted that the search process might take several months to allow the board to, “develop a profile for the next CEO that is desired and then match candidates to that profile and go through the selection process.”

“We are extremely grateful for Dr. Scopelliti’s excellent leadership,” said Ken Levitzky, chair of Guthrie’s board of directors, “Under his direction, Guthrie made significant strides in its ongoing mission to deliver superior patient care. Through his example, we have strengthened our system’s culture of trust and collaboration, with the patient at the center of every decision.”

Dr. Scopelliti thanked Guthrie and gave them credit for all the work that the medical group has accomplished for communities in central Pennsylvania and southern New York for over 110 years:

“We have a long and rich history of championing integrated healthcare and clinician leadership with one of the longest established group practices in the country, beginning with Dr. Donald Guthrie’s arrival in 1910. Since the beginning of my residency in 1979 I have witnessed the continuation of Dr. Guthrie’s mission through a period of exceptional growth, transforming us into a vibrant health system providing world-class care with a vast, multi-specialty group practice, new, state-of-the-art hospitals, teaching programs, a research institute, home care and hospice. As its steward, I am proud to have led this robust development, leaving a legacy of high-quality, patient-centered care with a sound financial foundation positioning the organization well for the future.”