MIDDLEBURY — Porter Medical Center today announced that a long-time hospital executive from North Carolina will succeed James L. Daily as president of the Middlebury organization. Daily will retire this spring after 31 years in his role.
Lynn Boggs is a registered nurse who holds master’s degrees in business administration and science of nursing, and is a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives. She most recently served as senior vice president, System Operations, for Mission Health in North Carolina, while concurrently serving as president and CEO of McDowell Hospital; a post she held since 2012.
Mission Health covers 18 counties in western North Carolina and was recognized as one of the nation’s “Top 15 Health Systems” in 2012 and 2013 by Thomson Reuters and Truven Health Analytics.  McDowell Hospital, part of the Mission System, is a 64-bed hospital with a network of nine physician/mid-level provider practices. It is located in Marion, N.C., about 35 miles east of Asheville.
“After a comprehensive national search for a new leader for Porter Medical Center, we are absolutely thrilled to have found an exceptional health care executive with more than 35 years of experience to help guide Porter Medical Center into the future,” said Porter Board Chair Bill Townsend in a press release.
Boggs is projected to start her new job at Porter on June 1. She will be the first woman to lead Porter, which was founded in 1925.
Among her many achievements at Mission Health, Boggs was the successful development of new services in the eastern counties of Mission Health’s service area and developing system-wide clinical contracts and services that supported a clinically integrated regional network of care. As president of McDowell Hospital, she successfully led the organization in improving quality, financial performance and patient satisfaction.
Prior to her senior leadership roles at Mission Health, Boggs served as executive vice president and COO for SSM Healthcare in St. Louis, a system that includes seven hospitals in Wisconsin, Illinois, Missouri and Oklahoma. While at SSM Healthcare, Boggs provided operational oversight for three hospitals, ambulatory and home health services, a 200-member medical group and 950 inpatient beds.
Before joining SSM Healthcare, Boggs served in a variety of leadership roles at Novant Health System in Winston Salem, N.C., a nonprofit health care system serving more than 5 million residents from Virginia to South Carolina. There, she served as president of Presbyterian Hospital and Presbyterian Orthopedic Hospital. She also spent three years as the executive vice president and COO for Novant’s four hospitals in its Southern Piedmont Region. Boggs began her career at St. Francis Xavier Hospital in Charleston, S.C., and later moved on to director of the Emergency-Trauma, Outpatient and Ambulatory Services at Greenville Hospital System in Greenville, S.C.
Boggs earned her MBA from Wake Forest University and her Master of Science of Nursing–Nursing Administration degree from the Medical University of South Carolina.
“I look forward to the opportunity to join such an outstanding organization which has been serving the people of Addison County and surrounding towns for 90 years,” Boggs said in a press release. “During my visit to Porter earlier this month, I was deeply impressed by the strong commitment of the board, medical staff and employees to serving and caring for the community through excellent customer service and the delivery of high quality health care; and I am looking forward to both leading and working collaboratively as a team to take Porter forward.”
In April 2014, Daily announced his intention to retire from Porter by 2016. He took over the top job at Porter Medical Center in 1984. Under his stewardship, the hospital and its associated medical practices and nursing home, have grown considerably from a basic community hospital to a critical care medical center that includes sophisticated imaging/x-ray equipment, a modern birthing center, and a well-equipped surgical center.
Boggs acknowledged Daily’s legacy.
“I also want to acknowledge the tremendous accomplishments and legacy of Jim Daily over the past 31 years, and express my strong desire to build upon his hard work and ensure that Porter Medical Center continues to serve our community with the highest quality health care services,” she said.
PORTER HOSPITAL