MercyOne President and CEO Robert “Bob” Ritz has announced his retirement effective Jan. 2, 2026.
His retirement was announced in a MercyOne news release today, Sept. 30.
Mr. Ritz first joined MercyOne in 2013 as president of what was then Mercy Des Moines Hospital. He led the organization through tremendous growth and change as the hospital system grew across the state, the release said.
“Health care is the most incredible profession, and I am so grateful to have seen so many trusted colleagues and physicians provide such compassionate care exhibited every day of my career,” Mr. Ritz said. “I can think of no better place to end my 40 years in health care leadership than here at MercyOne, still embracing our mission to be a healing presence in our communities.”
In 2017, he was appointed CEO of Mercy Health Network, which would later be newly branded as MercyOne, co-owned by CommonSpirit Health and Trinity Health.
In the early months of the global pandemic, Mr. Ritz supported an agreement with Corteva Agriscience to use their laboratory technology to expand testing for MercyOne patients and the surrounding communities. The arrangement allowed MercyOne to increase and process testing exponentially from the volume handled in the MercyOne lab space alone.
He has been involved in growing MercyOne over the past eight years to be a comprehensive system of health services providing more than 4 million patient visits per year with 22,000 colleagues and several thousand physicians.
In 2022, Mr. Ritz led the system through the full ownership transfer to Trinity Health. At the same time, Mr. Ritz worked with Trinity Health to complete the acquisition of Genesis Health System, now MercyOne Genesis, in the Quad Cities, making MercyOne one of the largest hospital systems in Iowa with 40 owned and affiliated hospitals and hundreds of clinics.
Mr. Ritz was in Davenport last fall for a ceremony to rebrand the local hospitals to MercyOne Genesis.
Mr. Ritz and his wife are looking forward to spending more time with their grandchildren and traveling. Trinity Health will begin recruiting for a new leader for MercyOne in the coming months.
