Baptist Health names new CEO; will assume duties Dec. 4

Ger Colman

Gerard “Ger” Colman will be the new CEO of Baptist Health, Kentucky's largest operator of hospitals.

Colman, 47, will start work Dec. 4. A company press release said he was chosen after "an extensive national search" to replace Steve Hanson, who left in March, after the company lost money for five straight calendar quarters and laid off 288 employees, mostly at its Louisville headquarters.

Baptist has more than 25,000 employees and operates seven hospitals in Kentucky and one in Southern Indiana, as well as the Baptist Health Medical Group and more than than 300 points of care, the release said.

Colman comes to Louisville from Milwaukee, where he was chief operating officer of Aurora Health Care System. He worked for a decade at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, after working for hospitals in New Jersey.