New Northwest Health System CEO Announced

Northwest Health System of Springdale announced Thursday its appointment of veteran hospital executive Sharif Omar to the position of CEO.

He is replacing Dan McKay, who tendered his resignation in July to become CEO of Sparks Health System in Fort Smith and its sister facility, Summit Medical Center in Van Buren.

Northwest Health System, Sparks and Summit are all owned by publicly traded Community Health Systems of Franklin, Tenn.

“On behalf of the board, I look forward to welcoming Sharif to Northwest Health System,” Linda Maienschein, chairman of Northwest Health System board of directors, said in a press release. “His experience working closely with physicians and employees to raise the bar for quality patient care will further position Northwest well into the future.”

Omar has 15 years’ experience in hospital leadership, including in his home state of Louisiana at the Southwest Medical Center in Lafayette. He played a key role in medical response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005, as associate vice president of Tulane University Hospital and Clinic, according to the press release.

Omar attended Louisiana State University as an undergraduate and earned his master’s degree in health administration from Tulane University.

Most recently, Omar served for three years as CEO of Pottstown Memorial Medical Center in Pottsdown, Pennsylvania.  

In this role, he enriched and created new services for breast health, urgent care, ambulance service and psychiatry, according to the press release.

PMMC has received multiple recognitions for its work in stroke and joint replacement, earned three consecutive American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer achievement awards, and was named a Top Performer on Quality Measures by the Joint Commission

“Northwest Health Systems has a tradition of excellence, and I am honored to join the physicians, employees and volunteers in their daily work of caring for the northwest Arkansas community,” Omar said in the press release.