Citizen Staff Writer
TY BOWERS
tybowers@tucsoncitizen.com
Judith Rich knows the business of health care “from the ground up.”
She began her career as a nurse and rose through the ranks to become a hospital administrator.
On Monday, Tucson Medical Center tapped Rich as its next president and CEO.
Rich has led the nonprofit TMC HealthCare system since July 2007, serving as an executive vice president and hospital administrator.
“For many years it was not common for a nurse to rise to this position,” Rich said Tuesday in a telephone interview from Washington, D.C. “More and more clinical people are coming up through the ranks. There’s an advantage to knowing things from the ground up.”
Rich worked at TMC as chief operating officer from 2003 to 2005. She will lead southern Arizona’s largest hospital, which has 650 beds.
“Judy has done an outstanding job in the last two years in improving financial performance and building strong relationships with both TMC physicians and staff,” TMC HealthCare board Chairman Louise Francesconi said in a statement.