ATI Physical Therapy Inc announces the hiring of healthcare operations veteran Christopher Cox as its new Chief Operating Officer. Cox has more than 17 years’ experience in the healthcare sector, including more than 10 years in operational leadership roles.
“By putting Chris in charge of Operations, we are executing on a key part of our strategy — aligning the right people with the right skillsets to best meet the needs of our practice and to deliver business results,” said ATI Chief Executive Officer Sharon Vitti, who worked cross-functionally with Cox during their time at CVS Health. “We have reconstituted the COO role by combining the critical responsibilities of leading operational excellence and integrating our field operations, Health Services and practice support verticals.”
“What drew me to ATI was the opportunity to again work with a transformational leader like Sharon and the opportunity to roll up my sleeves to drive the same standard of operational excellence ATI teams have historically delivered,” Cox said. “I look forward to working with field leadership to develop innovative new operational support elements to enhance consistency, visibility, and performance, while delivering the outstanding patient care for which ATI is known.”
Cox’s arrival brings a new purview of the COO role at ATI, including oversight of the Company’s ATI Worksite Solutions and Sports Medicine businesses — together known as Health Services — as well as field operations, revenue cycle management, payer contracting and reimbursement, central scheduling and telehealth support, and transformation & enterprise project management.
“Operational excellence at a practice of our size and scale requires an implicit understanding of the vital dependencies across these functions, and a breadth of expertise and operations acumen to fully integrate all the components,” Vitti said. “Chris has demonstrated a track record in delivering operational excellence across a complex operating environment in a way that makes him the right person for this role at this time.”
Cox comes to ATI after nearly 15 years in progressively higher-level leadership positions at CVS Health, including five years in vice presidential roles over store operations, strategy and growth, and three years as Senior Vice President, Retail Pharmacy. In his last role at CVS, Cox was accountable for the $80Bn+ Retail Pharmacy P&L and also served to oversee the development, implementation, and operational oversight of the company’s COVID-19 vaccine efforts.
He most recently served a brief term as Executive Vice President, Enterprise Operations at Advantage Solutions before leaving to join ATI. He holds an MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania with a dual concentration in Finance and General Management, and an undergraduate degree from Duke University.
[Source(s): ATI Physical Therapy, PR Newswire]
