North Ottawa Has New CEO

North Ottawa Community Health System has been like a ship caught in ice, but Shelleye Yaklin, who took the captain’s chair as president and CEO in mid-December, is working to turn that ship around.

The company has seen dips in both personnel and financials. Yaklin noted the financials have been “very slow” to turn around, but she believes the company now is headed in the right direction. The two most significant hits in personnel have been in the areas of obstetrics and internal medicine.

Yaklin said defining the types of physicians the hospital needs is central to rebuilding the leadership roles.

Before stepping into her role with North Ottawa, Yaklin spent 10 years with LaGrange Community Hospital in Indiana. Seven of those years were spent as CEO, the first three as chief financial officer. She then moved to Michigan and ran the Kindred Hospital in Lincoln Park near Detroit. Her husband, Greg, a CPA and vice president of finance for Datamatics, still lives in the Detroit area while looking for a job in West Michigan.

Yaklin has noticed differences in health care systems between the Detroit area and West Michigan. She said that the amount of hospitals in Southeast Michigan have made for a “very competitive” atmosphere, as opposed to West Michigan where she has noticed “a lot more of the community hospitals, more of the independent.”

Yaklin replaced Michael Payne who resigned early last year. Frank Nagy had been serving as interim CEO. HQX

— Jake Himmelspach