Mind Springs Health has a new leader seven months after its former CEO Sharon Raggio stepped down. John Sheehan will begin as CEO in early August. 

Mind Springs is the private nonprofit responsible for providing behavioral health safety-net services in Summit and nine other Western Slope counties.

Raggio stepped down in January after the Colorado News Collaborative and its news partners statewide published an investigative story outlining how the nonprofit failed Coloradans needing care in the 10 Western Slope counties it is contracted with the state to serve.  

In the months since, additional insights about Mind Springs have come to light, including the findings of an unprecedented tri-agency audit on Mind Springs revealed in May, an investigation from the Colorado News Collaborative about the state hiding “life-threatening” errors made by Mind Springs and complaints from whistleblowers who say they falsified patient records. 

Sheehan is coming from Rochester RHIO where he has served as the CEO and president since August 2021. The organization is based in Rochester, New York and is a electronic health information exchange, which “allows a medical care team to share records across institutions and practices, making patient information available wherever and whenever needed to provide the highest quality care,” says the company’s website. 

Sheehan’s resume also includes serving as the CEO of Harbor Toledo for seven years. According to the release from Mind Springs, Harbor Toledo is “one of the largest behavioral health providers in the Midwest.” Before that, he was the vice president of behavioral health services for BayCare Health System based in Clearwater, Florida. 

When he begins his new role at Mind Springs, Sheehan will relieve Doug Pattison, the firm’s former chief financial officer, who has served as the interim CEO after Raggio’s resignation. Mind Springs Health Board Chair Stefan Bate said the organization’s board of directors “did not enter the search for a new CEO lightly” and is quoted thanking Pattison for stepping in as CEO during a “turbulent time.”