Tuesday, June 7, 2016 1:24 pm

Saint Thomas Health has announced changes in leadership at Saint Thomas Stones River, DeKalb and Highlands Hospitals.

Sue Conley will be leaving her post as CEO of Saint Thomas Stones River. In the interim, Craig Norris, who was previously chief operating officer at Saint Thomas River Park Hospital, will serve as interim CEO for Saint Thomas DeKalb, Highlands and Stones River.

Leadership changes will take effect immediately and Saint Thomas Health has begun a search for the new CEO.

"These communities and hospitals are very important to Saint Thomas Health and our goal is to strengthen them for continued service. We are nearly one year into the transition of ownership and, overall, things have gone very well. We have a new CEO at Saint Thomas River Park. We've had two successful Joint Commission surveys at Saint Thomas Stones River and River Park and we've made significant capital investments in the hospitals. Recent surveys of the community have shown that the ownership and management by Saint Thomas Health is perceived very positively," said Gordon Ferguson, president and CEO of Saint Thomas Rutherford Hospital and Regional Hospitals.

'There are, though, additional opportunities for consolidating operations and leadership and we need to make changes,' Ferguson said in a press release.

"For this reason, after much thought and prayer, we have made the decision to bring Saint Thomas DeKalb, Highlands and Stones River Hospitals under one chief executive officer. This means that Sue Conley and Bill Little will be leaving their roles as CEOs for these hospitals. We are very grateful to Sue and to Bill for their years of service to Capella and, more recently, to Saint Thomas Health and the communities served by these three hospitals," he said.