Timeline of Frank Perez’s tenure at Kettering Health Network
May 1994: Frank Perez becomes Kettering Medical Center’s president and CEO.
1995 The Wallace-Kettering Neuroscience Institute (WKNI) formed as the first center-of-excellence at KMC.
May 25, 1995 Ground breaking is held for a $23 million surgery expansion and new physician office building at Kettering Medical Center.
April 1997: KMC takes ownership of Dartmouth Hospital which is renamed Kettering Youth Services and later Kettering Hospital Youth Services.
1998 The Kettering Cardiovascular Institute established at KMC.
May 1998: KMC dedicates the Oscar Boonshoft Center for Neuroscience.
May 1999: Kettering Medical Center and Grandview Medical Center finalize preparations to integrate the two organizations under one leadership team.
February 22, 2001: Frank Perez becomes President and CEO of the Kettering Medical Center Network.
May 23, 2001: Kettering Sports Medicine Center opens.
September 19, 2002 Hopeland Family Health Center is renamed the Victor J. Cassano Sr. Health Center. The new 22,000- square-foot center to be built will cost $5.5 million and is financed entirely by community and government support.
2004 Frank Perez, CEO and President of Kettering Medical Center Network, is chosen as the recipient of the Distinguished Leadership Award by the Leadership Dayton Board of Governors.
July 21, 2004: Kettering College of Medical Arts holds ground breaking ceremony for new $12.5 million building.
June 2006: Kettering Medical Center announces plans for Benjamin and Marian Schuster Heart Hospital
May 2009: KHN acquires 50 percent stake in Medical Center at Elizabeth Place.
August 2009: KHN breaks ground for hospital in Beavercreek, reflecting push into the suburbs.
December 2009: KHN buys Moraine Farm for $2.5 million.
February 2010: KHN announces proposed affiliation with Fort Hamilton Hospital in Hamilton.
May 4, 2010: KHN announces largest gift in its history, names Beavercreek hospital after Indu and Raj Soin.
KETTERING — When Frank Perez became president and CEO of Kettering Medical Center in 1994, the hospital had a dire financial outlook.
It was losing its only HMO contract — 13.5 percent of its business. Unrest was rife within the medical staff. The hospital was on course to lose $30 million that year.
Stopping the bleeding was paramount, Perez said, but quality couldn’t be sacrificed.
Perez said the hospital presented the cancellation of its contract with UnitedHealthcare as an opportunity for another health insurer to take on more enrollees. That fall, the hospital entered into a managed care contract with another health insurer, and 70,000 switched from the canceled plan to the new plan, recalls Perez, who announced Thursday, May 6, that he will retire in a year.
The hospital also tried to energize employees to maintain quality and rally around a renewed mission and vision, Perez said.
From those difficult times, Kettering Medical Center entered an era of affiliations that created today’s Kettering Health Network: Grandview/Southview medical centers (1999), Greene Memorial Hospital (2007) and a pending affiliation with Fort Hamilton Hospital in Hamilton.
“It is obvious the Kettering Health Network is in a much better position than it was when Frank got there,” said Bryan Bucklew of the Greater Dayton Area Hospital Association. “He elevated Kettering to a point where they’re definitely a leader in the community.”
Perez and his wife of 44 years, Carmen, plan to stay in Kettering. Perez said he’ll remain active in causes that further the arts, human services and economic development, but also looks forward to fishing and spending more time with his family, including three grandchildren.
Jim Leftwich, president and CEO of the Dayton Development Coalition, called Perez “an exceptional leader and community trailblazer.”
“From the beginning of his tenure on our board ... he has been an invaluable advocate for our region,” Leftwich wrote in a prepared statement. “This was especially true during the BRAC (Base Closure and Realignment Commission) process, reaching out to the San Antonio, Texas, community where the medical missions are coming from.”
Tom Breitenbach, chief executive officer of Premier Health Partners, has worked with Perez through GDAHA.
“He’s very affable and very community-oriented, and that makes it very easy to work with him,” said Breitenbach, who said he and Perez share a commitment to improve the region’s clinical quality of care.
Perez was recruited to give Kettering Medical Center a more external focus, Breitenbach said.
“He’s certainly been a positive influence on the Kettering network,” Breitenbach said.
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