Eric Evans, chief executive officer of HCA Houston Healthcare Tomball, is departing Tomball to lead Corpus Christi Medical Center as CEO effective June 15, HCA Healthcare Gulf Coast Division announced in a May 13 release.
Evans will replace Jay Woodall, who retired in February, at Corpus Christi Medical Center, according to the release. Evans has worked for HCA Healthcare since 1996, according to the release.
Evans said he looks forward to being a servant leader in the Corpus Christi community as he has done in Tomball.
"[I am looking forward to] being able to do what I did here at Tomball on a larger scale and being able to make sure that we have high employee engagement that drives exceptional clinical quality, that drives that patient experience, that makes it a great hospital system that people want to go to," Evans said.
Evans came to HCA Houston Healthcare Tomball—then named Tomball Regional Medical Center—in December 2017 after serving as CEO of East Houston Regional Medical Center, which closed after sustaining damage from Hurricane Harvey, as Community Impact Newspaper previously reported.
“Eric’s operational, management and clinical expertise will be invaluable to Corpus Christi Medical Center as we work to build upon the success we have experienced over the last several years,” said Troy Villarreal, HCA Healthcare Gulf Coast Division president, in the release. “I know he will take his extraordinary talents and continue to meet the health care needs of the Corpus Christi community.”
Since Evans came to lead the Tomball hospital, the hospital has been renamed and rebranded as HCA Houston Healthcare Tomball, and Evans spearheaded efforts with NewQuest Properties to redesign the 150-acre hospital campus, including potential plans to add medical office, retail and restaurant space.
While in Tomball, Evans has drawn from his five years as chief operating officer of The Woman's Hospital of Texas, enhancing women's services in Tomball. Most recently, the Tomball hospital opened its Woman's Center, which is home to mammography and other women's services, according to information from HCA Houston Healthcare.
"I'm proud of the fact that we brought the cancer center back to the community; I'm proud of the fact that we developed a woman's center and kind of kept that promise," Evans said. "I am most proud of the fact that people wouldn't be sad to see me go if they thought I hadn't turned the hospital around. I am most proud of when my employees, when our physicians, when people in this community think of health care first, they think of HCA Tomball whereas that wasn't here when I got there two-and-a-half years ago. ... [The hospital has] always been embedded in the community but it's lost that trust, so I'm most proud of gaining that trust back."
Evans said he will miss the friends and relationships he has made in Tomball most.
He said he believes he leaves the Tomball hospital in the great hands of his leadership team, and Chief Operating Officer Robert Sabina will take on interim leadership duties June 1.
"We could have never taken care of and done everything that we have done [during COVID-19] if we didn't have great culture, engagement of our employees, engagement of our physicians and our community," Evans said. "That community trust and that relationship that has been built over the last couple of years is what I'm most proud of."
