Ascension Saint Thomas is pleased to announce the appointment of S. Alan Phelps as chief financial officer at Ascension Saint Thomas River Park Hospital in McMinnville and Highlands Hospital in Sparta. With more than 25 years of leadership experience in healthcare finance and operations, Phelps brings deep expertise and a proven track record of driving financial performance, strategic planning and operational excellence.
Phelps joins Ascension Saint Thomas after serving in financial leadership roles across healthcare systems including Quorum Health, LifePoint Health, HealthTrust Workforce Solutions, Capella Health and HCA Healthcare. Most recently, he served as interim CFO and remote interim controller for Quorum Health, where he led financial department operations, implemented cost-containment initiatives, and supported strategic growth plans.
Throughout his career, Phelps has held numerous interim and permanent CFO and controller positions, successfully leading financial departments, overseeing budgeting processes, ensuring compliance and driving enterprise-wide financial systems implementations. His work has included leading acquisition transitions, managing multi-facility financial operations, and collaborating closely with executive leadership teams to align financial strategies with long-term organizational goals.
Notably, Phelps previously served as CFO and assistant market CFO for River Park and Highlands hospitals when they were part of Capella Health.
“Alan’s approach to financial leadership aligns with our mission to deliver compassionate, high-quality care while being good stewards of our resources,” Justin McElroy, vice president of finance at Ascension Saint Thomas, said. “His experience across diverse healthcare systems makes him exceptionally well-positioned to lead the financial strategy at River Park and Highlands hospitals.”
Phelps holds a Bachelor of Business Administration from Georgia State University. He resides in Morrison, Tennessee.
Ascension Saint Thomas remains dedicated to expanding access to high-quality, community-based care across Middle Tennessee. By continuing to invest in local hospitals like River Park and Highlands, the health system is strengthening its commitment to serve individuals and communities with care that is close to home. Phelps steps into this pivotal role at a time of purposeful growth and will play an integral part in advancing this mission.
Ascension Saint Thomas is a leading health care system with a 125-year history of providing care to the community, and is the only faith-based, nonprofit health system in Middle Tennessee. Today, the health system offers a highly comprehensive system of care, with more than 320 sites of care that cover a 45-county area in Tennessee consisting of 18 hospitals and a network of affiliated joint ventures, medical practices, clinics and specialty facilities. Across the state, Ascension Saint Thomas and its partner organizations employ more than 13,000 dedicated associates who care for millions of patients each year. Ascension Saint Thomas is part of Ascension, one of the nation’s largest faith-based healthcare organizations committed to delivering compassionate, personalized care to all, with special attention to persons living in poverty and those most vulnerable. Ascension includes approximately 134,000 associates, 35,000 affiliated providers and 140 hospitals, serving communities in 19 states and the District of Columbia. Visit ascension.org.
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