Stephen A. Williams
President and Chief Executive Officer
Stephen A. Williams, president and chief executive officer for Norton Healthcare, has been with Norton since 1977 and has served as president/CEO since 1993. Before that, he served as executive vice president/chief operating officer (1988-93); vice president, quality management (1986-88); vice president, managed hospitals (1984-1986); administrator, CaldwellCountyHospital (1980-84); and assistant to the executive vice president (1977-79). A native of Lola, in western Kentucky, Williams received a bachelor's degree in business administration from MurrayStateUniversity and a master's in health care administration from the University of Minnesota.
Norton Healthcare is Kentucky’s largest and most comprehensive health care system and has been designated as one of the nation’s Top 100 integrated healthcare delivery systems. Norton has five hospitals in the Louisville area, including Kosair Children’s Hospital, Kentucky’s only full-service free-standing children’s hospital. Norton also has 14 outpatient care centers, with 2000 physicians on staff, including over 300 employed physicians in primary care as well as several specialties. With over 58,000 hospital admissions and one million outpatient visits, Norton provides about half of all healthcare services in greater Louisville and is a regional referral center for several services. Those include Norton Cancer Institute, Norton Neuroscience Institute, NortonLeathermanSpineCenter, and Norton Women’s Pavilion which provides the state’s largest maternal fetal medicine regional referral service for obstetrics and high risk pregnancies. Norton also has physician, nursing, and allied health teaching programs through affiliations with University of Louisville, University of Kentucky, and several other universities and colleges.
With over 10,000 employees, Norton is Louisville’s third largest employer and Kentucky’s seventh largest. Norton has over $1.5 billion in assets, $3.1 billion in gross revenues and $ 1.2 billion in net revenues.
Williams has the unique distinction of having served as CEO of Kentucky's smallest hospital at the time (Livingston County, 26 beds, 1972-77, at age 22) and now serving as CEO of Kentucky's largest health care system. He led Norton's pioneering development of Total Quality Management in the health care industry in the mid-1980s, which led to Norton being recognized as the first in the nation to receive Healthcare Forum's Commitment to Quality Award in l988. He has authored several articles and spoken nationally on strategies in health care quality management. He also was recognized as one of four Emerging Leaders nationally in 1990. Norton Healthcare has been designated as one of the top 100 integrated healthcare organizations in the nation.
Williams has served as a member of the board of trustees of the American Hospital Association and chaired its Regional Policy Board 3 (seven southeastern states and the District of Columbia). He has chaired the board of trustees of the Kentucky Hospital Association and has received its Award of Excellence. He has served as co-chair of Greater Louisville Inc. (the city’s chamber of commerce and economic development organization); chair of Louisville's Metro United Way (raising more than $28 million for charity); chair of KentuckianaWorks (the region's workforce investment board); and has served on the boards of Leadership Louisville, Fund for the Arts, University Medical Center, University Healthcare Corporation, and many other health care and civic organizations.