CEO, COO leaving is ‘exciting’ for MModal?

Did you catch the news this week about the shakeup in the executive suite of transcription and clinical documentation service provider MModal?

The Franklin, Tenn.-based company, formerly known as MedQuist, announced Tuesday that CEO Vern Davenport has “chosen to leave the company,” as has COO Amy Amick. In their place, MModal named Duncan W. James, formerly of QuadraMed, as the new CEO and promoted CFO Ron Scarboro to COO. Finance VP David Woodworth takes over as acting CFO. In addition, MModal brought in Graham O. King, ex-head of both Shared Medical Systems — now part of Siemens — and  HBO & Co. — cleaning up a scandal at the latter company prior to its 1999 takeover by McKesson — to fill the newly established position of chairman of the board.

In a statement, Greg Belinfanti of MModal owner One Equity Partners said, “This is a very exciting, positive period for MModal as it continues to grow and increase its presence in the healthcare industry’s important clinical documentation segment.” Say what? You just lost two of your top three executives for reasons you aren’t disclosing and it’s an “exciting, positive period” for the company?

The only thing I can guess is that Davenport and Amick might be working on a new venture together. The two were both executives at Misys Healthcare Systems — Davenport as CEO — in 2008 when that vendor merged with Allscripts. For what it’s worth, at least two other top Misys people, namely Paul Edge and Michael Raymer, remain at MModal, as far as I can tell from their LinkedIn profiles and from MModal’s current list of executives. Stay tuned.