Children’s Minnesota names new CEO at pediatric health system

Children’s Minnesota announced Tuesday that Dr. Emily Chapman, a longtime physician leader at the Minneapolis-based nonprofit, will become CEO early next month at the region’s largest pediatric health system.

Chapman, who previously served as the chief medical officer at Children’s, is taking the top job at a time when Minnesota hospitals still are figuring out exactly how federal legislation passed this summer could impact their funding from Medicaid, the state-federal health insurance program for lower-income residents.

Medicaid, a large source of funding for pediatric hospitals like Children’s, is just one of many factors driving rapid health care changes that are creating both opportunities and challenges, Chapman said.

The appointment, effective Aug. 2, will make Chapman the first female CEO in the organization’s 100-year history.

“Health care is certainly being disrupted from a number of fronts,” Chapman said in an interview. “We are closely watching what’s going on in Washington and what’s happening in St. Paul, in our state capital, and we’re watching the health of the industry as a whole.

“Most important to us is to ensure that we can, as Children’s Minnesota, be here always to serve this community, and that is challenging in this particular time as a not-for-profit organization,” she said.

Children’s announced in January that Dr. Marc Gorelick would retire this summer after seven years as CEO.