Coomes to retire as head of Napa’s Queen of the Valley Medical Center

After five years leading Queen of the Valley Medical Center in Napa, Larry Coomes has announced he will retire in early March, according to Providence St. Joseph Health, which operates the facility.

“I am so proud of everything we have accomplished together since I joined The Queen in December of 2015,” Coomes said in a Jan. 14 statement.

But Coomes, who worked much of his 30-year career in Florida and has family ties there, indicated his life priorities had shifted over the last year.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has put an exclamation point on the importance of being close to family,” Coomes said in the statement. “Being so far away for the past five years has grown increasingly difficult and the gravitational forces pulling us back to Florida are too strong to ignore any longer.”

Coomes joined the 208-bed, acute-care facility as chief operating officer, and was appointed CEO in March 2017 when Walt Mickens retired.

Over the course of his tenure, Coomes led the hospital through ups and downs that included lengthy negotiations with several unions before reaching terms on new contracts; and working on a joint operating company partnership between St. Joseph Health and Adventist Health that was ultimately denied by the state Attorney General.

Also under his leadership, the hospital opened an urgent care center in the River Park Shopping Center, and earned an array of designations and accreditations, as reported by the Napa Valley Register.

Prior to joining Queen of the Valley, Coomes was CEO for Tenet Health's Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center in Palm Beach, Florida. He also served as CEO at Universal Health's Auburn Regional Medical Center in Auburn, Washington; and Palmdale Regional Medical Center in Palmdale.

Coomes began his career in health care serving for six years as the chief operating officer at Tenet Health's West Boca Medical Center in Boca Raton, Florida. Prior to earning his MBA at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business, he worked for 10 years in the automotive industry in several executive positions at Ford Motor Company and as the National Director of Franchising Operations for the sports car manufacturer, Porsche.

Providence St. Joseph Health stated it will conduct an extensive executive search for his replacement.

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