Portland, Maine –MaineHealth, northern New England’s largest integrated health system, has selected a physician-executive from Virginia as its next chief executive officer.

Andrew T. Mueller, MD, is currently president and chief executive officer of Centra Health, a Lynchburg, Virg., health care system consisting of four local hospital organizations in central Virginia. Mueller will replace Bill Caron as MaineHealth CEO, who announced his intention to retire last year.

“In Dr. Mueller, we get a leader who knows health care from the ground up,” said Greg Dufour, chair of the MaineHealth Board of Trustees. “Having worked as a family medicine practitioner, Dr. Mueller understands what it takes to care for the whole person, and his considerable success as an executive makes him an ideal leader as we pursue our vision of “working together so our communities are the healthiest in America.”

After receiving his medical degree from the University of North Carolina School of Medicine in 1996, Mueller joined the Air Force and completed his residency at the Malcolm Grow Medical Center at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland, where he was later chief resident in family medicine. From 1999-2003, Mueller was a staff family physician and flight surgeon with the 437th Medical Group at Charleston Air Force Base in South Carolina. Upon leaving the Air Force in 2003, he practiced as a family physician at South Carolina Health Services in Bluffton, S.C., for three years.

Though he remained a practicing physician, Mueller began his career as a physician-executive with Novant Health, a large health care system spanning four states and based in North Carolina. He held roles of increasing responsibility at Novant, culminating with his role as president of Novant’s Greater Charlotte market. In May of 2019 he became the president and chief executive of Centra Health.

“The breadth of his experience was very attractive to us,” said George Isaacson, a member of the MaineHealth Board of Trustees and chair of its CEO search committee. “He knows what it’s like at the practice level and is an extremely competent executive with experience in both a very large as well as smaller health system. Importantly, he shares our belief in the role health systems can play in community health.”

Mueller is expected to start at MaineHealth in late spring. Originally, Caron had intended to retire at the end of the 2020 calendar year, but because of the demands imposed by the global coronavirus pandemic, those plans were delayed so as to maintain stability for MaineHealth during the crisis.

“Bill has been our leader at MaineHealth since its earliest days, and his vision built a health care system  that delivers excellent care, every day, and maintains local health systems that meet the needs of their communities,” said Dufour. “The Board of Trustees believes Dr. Mueller will continue that track record of success.”

For his part, Mueller said he found MaineHealth’s commitment to its patients and communities to be an attractive opportunity.

“MaineHealth’s focus on excellent, patient-centered care as well as community wellbeing gives me a chance to lead an organization making a difference in people’s lives every day,” said Mueller. “This is a unique opportunity that was simply too good to pass up.”

About MaineHealth

MaineHealth is a not-for-profit integrated health system consisting of nine local hospital systems, a comprehensive behavioral healthcare network, diagnostic services, home health agencies, and more than 1,700 employed and independent physicians working together through an Accountable Care Organization. With close to 22,000 employees, MaineHealth is the largest health system in northern New England and provides preventive care, diagnosis and treatment to 1.1 million residents in Maine and New Hampshire. It includes Franklin Memorial Hospital/Franklin Community Health Network in Farmington, LincolnHealth in Damariscotta and Boothbay Harbor, Maine Behavioral Healthcare in South Portland, MaineHealth Care at Home in Saco, Maine Medical Center in Portland, Memorial Hospital in North Conway, N.H., Mid Coast-Parkview Health in Brunswick, NorDx in Scarborough, Pen Bay Medical Center and Waldo County Hospital in Rockport and Belfast, Southern Maine Health Care in Biddeford and Sanford, Spring Harbor Hospital in Westbrook and Stephens Memorial Hospital/Western Maine Health Care in Norway. MaineHealth Affiliates include Maine General Health in Augusta and Waterville, New England Rehabilitation Hospital in Portland and St. Mary's Regional Medical Center in Lewiston. It is also a significant stakeholder in the MaineHealth Accountable Care Organization in Portland.