Acadia Healthcare Promotes Dr. Nasser Khan to Newly Created COO Position

Behavioral health behemoth Acadia Healthcare (Nasdaq: ACHC) announced the appointment of a new chief operating officer, a role the company did not previously include in its C-suite.

Dr. Nasser Khan, the operations group president for Acadia Healthcare’s comprehensive treatment center (CTC) business line, will assume the chief operating officer role on June 30, according to a filing from the Securities and Exchange Commission.

“My priorities are threefold,” Khan told Behavioral Health Business. “Two of them are … people and people. It’s service to our patients and it’s service to our staff. The third priority is our quality and clinical outcomes. I do believe we already deliver the highest quality care in the industry and do so at scale. I think we will go from great to even greater in that regard.”

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The chief operating officer responsibilities were formerly carried out by the company’s executive vice president of operations, John Hollinsworth. Hollinsworth will retire on June 30. Acadia Healthcare updated the job title to be more consistent with the language used by other companies of a similar size and caliber, a company spokesperson told BHB.

After his official retirement, Hollinsworth will serve in an advisory role until the end of 2024 to ease the leadership transition, according to the filing.

Before joining Acadia in 2022, Khan served as senior vice president of operations at Shields Health Solutions, a subsidiary of Walgreens Boots Alliance (Nasdaq: WBA). Khan, a physician, formerly worked as the head of program and chief medical officer at Biograph, a health care technology company.

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Jacob Cooper, the senior vice president and chief operating officer of Acadia’s CTC service line, will fill the role of CTC group president.

Under Khan, Acadia Healthcare has pushed to expand its CTC division Acadia plans to open 14 new CTCs in 2024 and acquired three North Carolina-based CTCs in March.

The renewed focus on CTCs plays into Acadia’s five-point strategy for growth, which includes facility expansion, de novo growth, joint venture partnerships, acquisitions and expanding its care continuum.

“[The strategy for growth] continues to reflect where we think the puck is headed and where our focus is going to be,” Khan said. “That being said, one thing that you will see more of is a real focus on innovation. [We will] ask ourselves in what ways can we leverage and adapt technology, ways of thinking and ways of working to meet our primary objectives around being a great employer and a great caretaker for patients.”

Acadia experienced weaker patient volumes than expected in the first quarter of 2024, but still projects that the company will meet its full-year guidance.

Along with expanding its CTC business, Acadia Healthcare plans to grow its outpatient segment. Earlier this month, CEO Christopher Hunter said that growing the company’s partial hospitalization programs (PHPs) and intensive outpatient programs (IOPs) is currently a “small financial contributor” to the business but one that has a significant upside over time.

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