Baptist Health Richmond Promotes Morgan Blanton to CMO

Baptist Health Richmond in Kentucky has appointed Morgan Blanton, DO, as vice president and chief medical officer, effective in September, according to Becker's Hospital Review. She succeeds Erica Gregonis, MD.

Blanton's promotion follows an internal track that has become common at community hospitals. She joined the 105-bed facility, part of Louisville-based Baptist Health, in 2019 as a hospitalist, then took over as medical director of hospital medicine in 2022. That path gives her direct knowledge of the hospital's clinical operations and staff before stepping into a role that typically oversees physician strategy, quality, and care standards.

For smaller hospitals, promoting from within can ease leadership transitions and retain institutional knowledge at a time when clinician recruitment and retention remain difficult. The CMO role is also increasingly central to operational priorities such as patient safety, throughput, and aligning physicians around system-wide goals across multi-hospital networks like Baptist Health.