Asante Rogue Regional Medical Center's new patient pavilion houses the new Binette Family Birth Center within the Olsrud Family Women's and Children's Hospital, which opened at the start of last month.

Asante officials announced the third CEO of Rogue Regional Medical Center since last summer on Wednesday.

Brandon Mencini, the recent CEO of Mercy Hospital in Denver, will begin his new role July 22. He will oversee operations at both Rogue Regional in Medford and Asante Ashland Community Hospital.

“Brandon comes to us with a wealth of knowledge and a proven track record in serving communities similar to ours in Southern Oregon. As an energetic and dynamic health care leader, he is the ideal leader for our hospitals in Medford and Ashland, bringing a reputation for leading high-quality organizations,” said Tom Gessel, current president and CEO of Asante, in a release.

“We are confident his passion for employee, provider and community engagement will further Asante’s mission.”

The release stated that Mencini, who Asante officials said would not be available for an interview, has “diverse experience in urban, rural and community hospital settings and started his healthcare career as an emergency medical technician.”

Before his time at Mercy Hospital, a multistate regional trauma center and not-for-profit hospital, Mencini served as chief operating officer of the 466-bed Chippenham Hospital, a level 1 trauma and burn center in Richmond, Virginia.

Statements from Asante officials have been sparse for most of the past year.

The embattled health care provider has had a slew of leadership changes since the summer, before it publicly acknowledged an investigation into drug-diversion allegations against a former hospital employee.

Since the investigation began, Asante officials have repeatedly declined to comment publicly or confirm alleged victim totals.

Interviews by the Rogue Valley Times with alleged victims’ family members indicate that some deaths occurred between November 2022 and July 2023. At least two local law firms say they have found cases dating back even earlier and that the number of potential alleged victims could be several dozen. 

Asante first made calls to alleged victims and their families in November and December 2023. Another round of phone calls, identifying additional alleged victims, were made in mid-March.

While police have not named a suspect, a civil suit filed Feb. 26 by Idiart Law Group identifies 35-year-old Medford RN Dani Marie Schofield as a co-defendant with Asante. The lawsuit — the first related to the drug-diversion allegations — seeks $11.5 million on behalf of the estate of 65-year-old Horace “Buddy” Wilson, who fell from a ladder Jan. 27, 2022, and was admitted to Rogue Regional with a lacerated spleen and broken ribs.

During his hospital stay, Wilson developed persistent, treatment-resistant sepsis and eventually experienced multisystem organ failure. Wilson died Feb. 25, the suit alleges, after Schofield repeatedly replaced the fentanyl in his IV with tap water. According to court documents, Wilson was “weaned from sedation and recovered enough mental function to communicate to the ICU staff that he no longer wished to live this way.”

According to documents filed by Idiart Law Group as part of the case for Wilson’s estate, Schofield left her job at the Medford hospital in July 2023.

At that time, an organization chart listed Roy Vinyard as interim president and CEO.

A news release from July 2023 on the hospital website that has since been placed behind a login screen stated that Asante had restructured its “executive ranks,” declaring that, “to be more efficient and more nimble, some roles have been eliminated while others gain new titles.” The same release, published July 27, announced Tom Gessel as the new president and CEO.

The online Wayback Machine and similar web cache crawlers captured 22 versions of Asante’s leadership webpage between August 24, 2013, and August 6, 2023.

A comparison between the July 2023 organizational chart and the current one shows a major shift in leadership roles, with more than half of the top ranks bearing new names one year later. Asante officials, contacted Wednesday by the Times, declined to confirm the accuracy of the current chart.

Asante officials and a public relations firm that the health provider has retained, and that has repeatedly declined to be identified, have remained silent about leadership changes and the drug-diversion investigation.

Asante Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Heather Rowenhorst presented an “Asante Health Systems Report” in March during the city of Medford Hospital Facilities Authority Board meeting. She briefly mentioned the impacts the investigation has had on Asante’s financial picture.

Rowenhorst said the health care provider is creating a “pool of funds” in anticipation of potential payouts amid an investigation into alleged drug diversion by a nurse at Rogue Regional.

She also said Asante had experienced “some pretty large changes within our (organizational) structure,” including new CEOs for hospitals in Medford and Grants Pass.

“So the team,” Rowenhorst said, “is coming together, all adding their strengths, and really excited to take on this financial recovery, as well as change the culture here at Asante.”

Contacted by the Times on Wednesday, Jackson County Deputy District Attorney Patrick Green, who said the case would be the biggest in his office’s history, said he had no updates on the Asante investigation or the arrest of potential suspects.