CHI’s Kevin E. Lofton Awarded Honorary Doctoral Degree

Kevin E. Lofton, chief executive officer of Catholic Health Initiatives, received an honorary Doctor of Humanities in Medicine degree May 31 from the Baylor College of Medicine, in Houston, Texas. The degree is awarded to individuals who have provided exceptional support or service, either directly or indirectly, to Baylor College of Medicine or to academic medicine as a whole.

Lofton received this special recognition at the Baylor College of Medicine commencement ceremony, which included 183 graduates from the School of Medicine and 84 graduates from the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at Baylor College of Medicine.

Lofton has served as chief executive officer of Catholic Health Initiatives since 2003. He previously held several executive positions with CHI, including chief operating officer. He is widely recognized at the national level and serves in leadership capacities in many of the major healthcare organizations. A longtime healthcare executive, Lofton’s background includes top positions in public, university, community and faith-based hospitals. Lofton holds a Master of Health Administration degree from Georgia State University (Atlanta), and a Bachelor of Science degree in Management from Boston University.

About Catholic Health Initiatives: Catholic Health Initiatives, a nonprofit, faith-based health system formed in 1996 through the consolidation of four Catholic health systems, expresses its mission each day by creating and nurturing healthy communities in the hundreds of sites across the nation where it provides care. The nation’s second-largest nonprofit health system, Englewood, Colorado-based CHI operates in 19 states and comprises 103 hospitals, including four academic health centers and major teaching hospitals as well as 30 critical-access facilities; community health-services organizations; accredited nursing colleges; home-health agencies; living communities; and other facilities and services that span the inpatient and outpatient continuum of care. In fiscal year 2015, CHI provided almost $970 million in charity care and community benefit – an 8% increase over the previous year -- for programs and services for the poor, free clinics, education and research. Charity care and community benefit totaled more than $1.6 billion with the inclusion of the unpaid costs of Medicare. The health system, which generated operating revenues of $15.2 billion in fiscal year 2015, has total assets of approximately $23 billion. Learn more at www.catholichealthinitiatives.org