Changes in leadership at two area health systems

Two longtime hospital managers are headed for new jobs as both Aria Health and Pennsylvania Hospital announced changes Monday in top leadership.

Kathleen Kinslow, a nurse anesthetist, who is executive director of Pennsylvania Hospital, will become president and chief executive officer of Aria Health in November.

Kinslow succeeds Roy Powell, 56, who has run the 484-bed system since 1996.

Meanwhile, Penn Medicine announced that Kinslow would be replaced Nov. 1 by R. Michael Buckley, a doctor who is chair of internal medicine and chief medical officer of Pennsylvania Hospital. The Philadelphia hospital has 515 beds.

Buckley, 64, received his undergraduate and medical degrees from Yale University. He did his residency in internal medicine at the University of North Carolina and his infectious-disease fellowship at Penn. He has worked at Pennsylvania Hospital for more than 30 years.

Aria, which was known until last year as Frankford Health Care System, operates two hospitals in Philadelphia and one in Bucks County.

During Powell's tenure, the system acquired land in Lower Makefield, Bucks County, for the future development of another hospital.

Maria Cerceo, an Aria spokeswoman, said Powell planned to take a month off, then consider health-care-consulting opportunities, including projects with Aria Health.

A Philadelphia native, Kinslow joined Pennsylvania Hospital in 1992 as director of the school of nurse anesthesia and has risen through the ranks since then.

She has a bachelor's degree in education from Ottawa University, Kansas City, and has master's degrees in education, nursing, and business administration. She has a doctorate in education from Widener University.