OLEAN, N.Y. — The head of the largest healthcare provider in the region — and one of the leading employers — is ready to enjoy his well-deserved retirement.

In an email to staff Thursday, Timothy Finan reported he will retire as president and CEO of both Bradford Regional Medical Center and Upper Allegheny Health System in July — a decision he jokingly called “the worst-kept secret in Olean.”

“I’ve been talking about retiring for a year,” he said Thursday. “I can’t wait — I’m really looking forward to doing it.”

He said he’s looking forward to his retirement on the beach in South Carolina, enjoying the sun and fishing after 42 years in the healthcare field.

Finan received a bachelor’s degree from Hamilton College in Clinton, and later a master’s in hospital administration from the George Washington University. He was president and CEO of Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center from 1991 to 1996, and served as executive vice president and chief operating officer of the regional HMO Univera Healthcare from 1996 to 2005.

In 2006, he took over as president and CEO of Olean General Hospital.

“If I were from Omaha, Nebraska, it would have been a great professional move, but it was personal,” he said, adding he and four siblings grew up in Allegany and his father taught at St. Bonaventure University. “It was great to come home … a one-in-a-million chance.”

While head of the hospital, Finan worked with Bradford Regional Medical Center officials to merge the two operations, culminating in the creation of Upper Allegheny Health System on Nov. 1, 2009. He was named president and CEO of the new operation the following February.

Olean General Hospital has 186 beds, including 138 medical and surgical beds, 14 each intensive care, maternity and psychiatric beds, and six pediatric beds. Meanwhile, Bradford Regional Medical Center has 107 beds plus a 95-bed skilled nursing facility. The group provides acute care and other services for an area with a population of almost 200,000, Finan said.

In May 2016, it was announced that UAHS would become affiliated with Kaleida Health, which manages five hospitals in the Buffalo area including Oishei Children’s Hospital and Buffalo General Hospital.

Consolidation and affiliations have helped keep both hospitals alive, Finan said.

“It was, I think, the right thing to do,” he said, helping solidify and expand services at both facilities. “I think that Kaleida is our best bet for our two hospitals to remain viable and relevant to our community … In this business, scale is vital.”

The “clinical firepower” that Kaleida offers through its network is something “that we could have never garnered on our own,” Finan said. “It’s about scale and leveraging clinical capabilities.”

But changing partners was hardly the only accomplishment over the past 14 years.

In the late 2000s, Olean General began a dental center, allowing for the uninsured and underinsured to get treatment at a time when dental benefits from Medicaid and private employers were diminished. Now, the hospital has 13 dental chairs plus service at a satellite office in Delevan for those in the northern part of Cattaraugus County.

The cardiac catheterization lab at Olean was also a major milestone.

Finan said that “watching the helicopters fly in from Wellsville or Coudersport” shows that the investment has “become a regional resource that has saved a lot of lives.”

In addition, thanks to cooperation with Kaleida in creating the center, it proved the first of many partnerships that led to the current affiliation.

However, the hurdles that have led to tough decisions for Finan and the board — including layoffs and changing service providers to cut costs — will not be going away.

“The business just continues to be challenging financially,” Finan said. “Nobody wants to pay for healthcare — the government doesn’t want to pay for healthcare, the state doesn’t want to pay for healthcare, employers don’t want to pay for healthcare. Rural areas are having a very difficult time.”

As officials reported in February, UAHS had a $5.1 million deficit on its approximately $200 million budget in 2018.

Along with keeping an eye on ways to expand services as lower costs, Finan said the best thing his replacement could do is keep in touch with those around him.

“Stay close to the employees, stay close to the physicians, stay close to the community,” Finan said.

Board officials said that Finan will be missed for his contributions.

“When he came to town … our hospitals in Olean and Bradford were in trouble,” said board President Jeff Belt. “Tim built a management team in-depth, established a bold vision, and led execution such that today, I believe we have the best rural healthcare system in New York or Pennsylvania. The data says I’m right.

“Our quality-of-care outcomes are excellent and our clinical bandwidth is without compare. I always tell people this could be the best place in America for a heart attack because — and at Tim’s insistence — all of our regional ambulances are now equipped to transmit EKG’s directly to our emergency room and our interventional cardiologists. OGH is one of the few rural hospitals in the state with a cardiac catheterization laboratory. In addition, our Cath Lab performance metrics are excellent across the board.”

The formal search for a replacement will begin at the end of the month, Belt said, but the board has already developed an updated job description and candidate profile “based on our thorough understanding of the challenges confronting rural hospitals and the unique assets and capabilities that we are so lucky to possess here in Olean and Bradford.”

Finan said that Kaleida Health, as the parent of UAHS and experienced in finding administration at five other hospitals in the region, will have a hand in helping the board select a new CEO.

“Technically and actually, Kaleida is our actual parent,” Finan said. “They have a lot of responsibilities with Olean. We want their involvement — their input is going to be immeasurable. Their perspective is pretty important and pretty essential.”

He added that he expects to aid the board with finding a replacement before his departure date — “possibly earlier.”