Hospital system names chief strategist

CLEARWATER — BayCare Health System, with a portfolio of medical centers that includes St. Joseph's Hospital in Tampa and St. Anthony's Hospital in St. Petersburg, hired Ed Rafalski as chief strategy and marketing officer.

Rafalski has more than 20 years experience in health care leadership. He most recently held a similar position, senior vice president of planning and marketing, with Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare in Tennessee. Rafalski was responsible for corporate planning, business development, market research, marketing, web services, public relations and communications there.

Before that he spent eight years as an assistant clinical professor with the University of Illinois School of Public Health. He also worked for two years as vice president of marketing for Alexian Brothers Health System and six years as vice president of planning and marketing for Sinai Health System.

Clearwater-based BayCare is a nonprofit health care system with 13 hospitals and hundreds of other locations throughout the Tampa Bay area and central Florida.