Rob Casalou recognized by Michigan Health & Hospital Association

For Immediate Release

Contact:

Laura Blodgett

734-712-4536

Laura.Blodgett@stjoeshealth.org

July 11, 2018

LANSING, Mich. — The Michigan Health & Hospital Association (MHA) this week honored three individuals who have greatly influenced healthcare across the state. Receiving the association’s highest achievement award, the 2018 Meritorious Service

Award, were Richard Breon, president and CEO, Spectrum Health, Grand Rapids; and Rob Casalou, president and CEO of Mercy Health in western Michigan and Saint Joseph Mercy Health System in southeast Michigan. The awards were presented during the MHA Annual Membership Meeting held this week. The association’s 2018 Special Recognition Award will honor Gov. Rick Snyder, who was unable to attend the event, and will be presented to him at another time.

Rob Casalou was honored for his extensive and ongoing service to hospitals and healthcare. He has been a member of the MHA Board of Trustees since 2011, a member of the MHA Board Executive Committee from 2013 through 2017, and board chair during the 2015-2016 program year. Casalou has served on several MHA committees and task forces, including seven years on the MHA Legislative Policy Panel. He also chaired the MHA Health Foundation Board in 2016-2017.

In addition to his service to the MHA, Casalou has been a delegate and is currently chair of the American Hospital Association (AHA) Regional Policy Board 5, which includes Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin. He was elected to a three-year term on the AHA Board of Trustees that began Jan. 1 and is currently board chair of Together Health Network, a statewide clinically integrated organization.

Casalou is a board member of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, an emeritus advisory board member of the Griffith Leadership Center at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, and a member of the American College of Healthcare Executives. In addition, he is a member of the Make-a-Wish Michigan board of directors.

Casalou served for 19 years in various positions with Ascension St. John Providence Health System, based in Warren, and oversaw the construction of Providence Park Hospital in Novi, where he was president and CEO until its completion in 2008. He joined Saint Joseph Mercy Health System that year as president of St. Joseph Mercy Ann Arbor and Livingston hospitals and, in 2015, was promoted to president and CEO of Saint Joseph Mercy Health System. The health system merged earlier this year with Mercy

Health in West Michigan to create one statewide system under Livonia-based Trinity Health.