by Jill Clendening
Thomas Nantais, MBA, has been named Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s executive vice president for Adult Ambulatory Operations and will join the Medical Center’s senior leadership team on Sept. 21.
In this role, Nantais reports to C. Wright Pinson, MBA, MD, Deputy Chief Executive Officer and Chief Health System Officer for VUMC, and will have oversight of the Medical Center’s adult ambulatory enterprise.
A search is currently underway for a vice president who will report to Luke Gregory, MBA, Chief Executive Officer for Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt and Senior Vice President for Business Development, and will lead adult ambulatory services for counties outside Davidson.
In fiscal year 2018, VUMC’s adult ambulatory clinics, currently located across 22 Tennessee counties, and with locations also in Southern Kentucky and Northern Alabama, experienced nearly 2.2 million patient visits.
Previously, Nantais was with the Henry Ford Health System (HFHS) for 35 years. He most recently served for 14 years as the chief operating officer of the Henry Ford Medical Group (HFMG), one of the nation’s oldest and largest medical groups based in metropolitan Detroit, Michigan. His primary role at HFHS was oversight for a $900 million annual operating budget, which includes 1,200 clinicians and 35 ambulatory sites in Detroit and surrounding townships providing services in more than 40 medical and surgical specialties.
“One of our strategic areas of focus is sustained growth for the Medical Center’s ambulatory services, establishing new clinics and programs in the communities we serve throughout the region. We’re excited to have Tom Nantais join our senior leadership team to assume this important role,” said C. Wright Pinson, MBA, MD, Deputy Chief Executive Officer and Chief Health System Officer.
“Tom comes to us with a strong history of successfully orchestrating operational growth in the face of today’s ever-changing economic and regulatory environment. These are skills we will rely on as we continue to push forward with plans for our ambulatory services.”
Nantais is an elected member of the Board of Directors of the American Medical Group Association (AMGA), and his long-term involvement with the AMGA has provided him a close view of VUMC’s clinical operations, he said. The AMGA includes group practices throughout the United States with 171,000 member physicians.
“In terms of the American Medical Group Association, Vanderbilt is one of our larger clinics representing around 3,000 physicians, so I know many leaders here already,” Nantais said. “I have a lot of familiarity with Vanderbilt, and honestly, the people and the culture here at Vanderbilt seem like a really great fit for me. It is very similar to where I’m coming from. People are warm. They are collegial. They really seem to enjoy what they do.
Prior to being appointed HFMG chief executive officer in August 2005, Nantais was HFMG’s chief financial officer for 12 years. He also served as assistant vice-president for Corporate Finance, as well as numerous other financial management positions within HFHS. Nantais has also conducted numerous workshops at national meetings and conferences over the past 20 years in areas such as physician compensation, system integration and health care financial management.
He earned a bachelor’s degree and a Master of Business Administration-Finance degree from Wayne State University in Detroit, where he was also a member of the baseball team from 1975-1977.
