Javon R. Bea

Javon R. Bea is President/CEO of Mercyhealth, a vertically integrated, multiregional system with seven hospitals, 700-plus employed physician partners and 7,000-plus employee/partners, 85 primary and specialty care locations, a home health and hospice division, and a wholly owned and operated insurance company. Mercyhealth offers services across 15 northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin counties.

Javon's experience implementing the effective culture of excellence programs and innovative physician compensation models to foster system turnaround is unparalleled. He pioneered a "partnership model" of compensation and designed a custom culture of excellence program that promotes both clinical and service quality initiatives.

Over the last 30 years, Javon transformed Mercy Hospital from a single, standalone hospital into a large, vertically integrated health system. When he began in 1989, Mercy Hospital was a struggling community hospital with no integrated physician partners. Today, more than 700 multispecialty physicians are completely integrated into employed physician partners—a model that Mercyhealth leadership championed long before it was recognized as a path to sustainable success throughout the industry. In fact, Mercyhealth has operated as a virtual Accountable Care Organization (ACO) for decades and has developed advanced physician and clinical protocols of care that position it for success under the new ACO model of care.

In 2015, Javon led the merger and integration of Mercy Health System and Rockford Health System to form Mercyhealth. Under his visionary leadership, Mercyhealth opened a state-of-the-art hospital and medical campus on I-90 and Riverside Boulevard in Rockford, Illinois, in January 2019. The project was the largest in Rockford's history. The Mercyhealth Board of Directors unanimously voted to name the facility Javon Bea Hospital and Physician Clinic–Riverside in his honor.

Javon's management and leadership have led to numerous national recognitions, including being named the first fully integrated health system to receive the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, the highest Presidential award for quality and organizational excellence; Magnet Recognition, the gold standard of nursing excellence; ranked #1 and #2 on AARP's Top 100 Best Places to Work for Workers over 50; and ranked in the top 25 on the 100 Integrated Healthcare Networks list by Modern Healthcare magazine for over 12 years.

In addition, Javon was honored with the Medical Group Management Association's 2019 Harwick Innovation Award for his revolutionary W2 Physician Partnership Model that helped transform Mercyhealth into a thriving, integrated health system.

Javon has more than four decades of experience in the national healthcare arena, having served at prestigious and well-respected medical centers throughout the country. A sought-after speaker and consultant, Javon is renowned for his innovations in the areas of integrated healthcare delivery and physician partnership models. He has written extensively for national healthcare publications, as well as co-authored The Capitation Sourcebook: A Practical Guide to Managing At-Risk Arrangements, and published a book entitled Journey to Excellence.