As he takes charge of Main Line Health, Edward Jimenez sees an exciting opportunity while recognizing the weight of the task ahead.

Earlier this month, Jimenez took over as president and CEO of Main Line, a system with four acute care hospitals in the Philadelphia region. Jimenez succeeds longtime CEO Jack Lynch, who has led Main Line Health for 20 years. Lynch has been assisting with the transition and will retire at the end of the month.

Jimenez previously served as president and CEO of University Hospital in Newark, New Jersey, and also served as CEO of University of Florida Health’s Shands Hospital for several years.

He tells Chief Healthcare Executive® that he’s “absolutely elated” to serve as Main Line’s CEO, even as he follows a figure who he calls a “legend in the management field.”

“My job here is not to dramatically alter what he’s done,” Jimenez says. “In fact, it’s to take everything that he’s done and done well and accentuate it. And with that comes great responsibility. With that comes great opportunity. And I think the people that are at Main Line have been chosen, and they’ve been chosen to do great things. And that being the case, it is a wonderful time to be here.”

Main Line has earned national recognition for its patient care and its efforts to improve treatment for disadvantaged groups. In 2023, Main Line Health received the American Hospital Association’s Quest for Quality Prize. All four of its hospitals received an “A” in The Leapfrog Group’s spring 2025 hospital safety report card.

But like many hospital systems, Main Line is experiencing financial challenges. The system has lost money for five years, Lynch said in a December interview with Chief Healthcare Executive. Citing financial pressures, the health system laid off nearly 200 employees in administration in January, although none of the staff cuts involved clinical positions.

In a wide-ranging discussion, Jimenez talked about his goals of improving the system’s finances, meeting the needs of staff members and his focus on patient safety.

(See part of our conversation in this video. The story continues below.)

‘Bring care closer’

Jimenez says he’s not looking at reducing any services or programs at Main Line Health. Instead, he says he wants Main Line Health to “connect with our communities in a different way.”

Main Line has opened more clinics in its communities, and Jimenez says that effort will accelerate.

“We’re going to bring care closer to the communities where our patients live,” Jimenez says. “So instead of having our patients relying on having to come to our campuses where we have hospitals, I think you’ve seen us open buildings in different locations, and so I think you’ll see more of that.”

Main Line will also improve access in other ways, including offering more telehealth options as well as making it easier for patients to see clinicians face-to-face, Jimenez says. As people in large metropolitan areas are facing longer waits to see doctors, he says marrying those two options can be “a big differentiator.”

“I think we’re going to improve the availability of physician services,” he says. “We’re going to improve bringing care closer to where people live. I think you put that all together, and we begin to manage our overall expense platform.”

Looking at Main Line, the financial difficulties aren’t tied to the system’s high quality of care, and the system employs excellent staff, Jimenez says. But in a post-Covid world, the system hasn’t been able to keep pace with rising expenses in staff and supplies, including medication and other necessities for a hospital.

“We just have an expenditure challenge that the organization couldn’t keep up with,” Jimenez says.

He says he’s not looking at additional staff reductions or cuts in programs, but he sees the potential to bring in more revenue by making it easier for people to engage with the system.

“As I come aboard, I see nothing, really, but expansion,” he says.

‘Their voice matters’

Jimenez says he’s also focused on making sure that he’s addressing the needs of Main Line’s workforce.

“There are 14,000 nurses, technicians, housekeepers, dietary staff, et cetera,” he says. “There’s well over 1,000 physicians. And I think as a leader, it’s my responsibility to make sure that everybody has what they need, that they feel like they can be heard, that they feel like their voice matters, and they feel like we make progress.”

As Main Line Health has gained more recognition as a top health system, Jimenez says it has helped the system “keep pace” with its competition in the Philadelphia region. He says that the system has had good success in hiring – and keeping – top doctors and nurses.

“For us to have zero problems recruiting the kind of doctors we want, for us to have zero problems recruiting nurses, for us to really have an amazing retention rate, speaks to this idea that people want to work here. People want to come here,” he says.

With the recent closure of Crozer Health in the Philadelphia suburbs, Main Line Health has hired some nurses and obstetricians who had worked at Crozer, along with some technicians and housekeepers.

“We’ve not only tried to make sure we’re taking care of the patients that are coming across, but we know people’s livelihoods were at risk, and so we’re trying to be a solid citizen as it relates to people who live and rely on a paycheck,” Jimenez says.

Crozer Health operated two hospitals in Delaware County, part of the Philadelphia suburbs, and Main Line has seen an uptick in patient volume, particularly at Riddle Hospital. Riddle’s emergency department is seeing more patients, and the hospital is delivering more babies, he says.

Lankenau Medical Center and Bryn Mawr Hospital have also seen more patients, as some have seen longer waits at Riddle with the increased number of patients.

“There’s a natural connectivity that’s happening because of the Crozer closure,” Jimenez says. “And on some level, it’s quite tragic.”

Patient safety

Jimenez says ensuring the safety of patients in Main Line’s hospitals is at the top of his mind.

“My inner priorities are always going to start with patient safety and quality,” he says. “It’s already here at Main Line, so it’s not like I have to work at making it a priority. But every day I wake up thinking about, how do I help 14,000 people deliver the kind of care that you and I would want for our families?”

Jimenez says he was particularly impressed that all of Main Line’s acute care hospitals earned an “A” from The Leapfrog Group in its most recent report card. He says that was especially appealing as he went through the interview process.

Main Line has focused extensively on improving care among disadvantaged communities, and Jimenez says that will remain a top priority.

In his early weeks with Main Line Health, Jimenez has marveled at the warmth of the communities in the Philadelphia region. Even though his most recent post involved leading a hospital in northern New Jersey, he stresses that he is not a fan of the New York Giants, a division rival of the Philadelphia Eagles, the reigning Super Bowl champs.

“The communities are all unique … They go from lively to homey to comfortable to warm,” he says. “Everybody I meet, it’s like, you’re just part of the neighborhood, and it’s not because people know what I do. I mean, certainly when I walk around the hospitals, people have a sense of who I am. But when I’m just out in the community, there’s just this warmth to it.”