(PHILADELPHIA) – Good Shepherd Penn Partners (GSPP), a joint venture of Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Network and the University of Pennsylvania Health System, has named Michael J. Soisson as Executive Director.

As the top leader for GSPP, Soisson will provide strategic oversight and operational leadership to the post-acute care network. He will oversee creating a culture of performance excellence, staff accountability and evidence-based decision making.

Soisson has vast experience in rehabilitation and long-term acute care hospital services. Prior to joining GSPP, he was a senior health-care consultant specializing in post-acute care. He previously served as Vice President for Hospital Development for Centerre Healthcare and senior consultant for post-acute services for Mitretek-Gill/Balsano Consulting. Soisson’s career also included positions as: Chief Executive Officer of Select Specialty Hospitals in Greensburg, Camp Hill and York, Pennsylvania; System Vice President for Conemaugh Health System in Johnstown, Pennsylvania; and COO/CEO of HealthSouth Rehabilitation Hospital in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Soisson received a bachelor’s degree from Loyola College in Maryland and master’s degree in exercise physiology from the University of Pittsburgh. He also earned a master’s degree in health care administration from Medical College of Virginia.

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Scheduled to open in July 2008, Good Shepherd Penn Partners (GSPP) brings together the synergies of two national leaders in rehabilitation to provide excellent, comprehensive post-acute care in the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania region. GSPP is a joint venture of Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Network based in Allentown Pennsylvania and the University of Pennsylvania Health System (UPHS) based in Philadelphia. GSPP will provide specialized inpatient long-term acute care and physical rehabilitation for patients discharged from medical, surgical and intensive care units. In addition, GSPP will operate outpatient rehabilitation centers as well as rehabilitation therapy services for UPHS’s three hospitals and three skilled nursing facilities. For more information on GSPP, visit www.GoodShepherdRehab.org/press-room/index.asp.

PENN Medicine is a $3.5 billion enterprise dedicated to the related missions of medical education, biomedical research, and excellence in patient care. PENN Medicine consists of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine (founded in 1765 as the nation's first medical school) and the University of Pennsylvania Health System.

Penn's School of Medicine is currently ranked #3 in the nation in U.S.News & World Report's survey of top research-oriented medical schools; and, according to most recent data from the National Institutes of Health, received over $379 million in NIH research funds in the 2006 fiscal year. Supporting 1,400 fulltime faculty and 700 students, the School of Medicine is recognized worldwide for its superior education and training of the next generation of physician-scientists and leaders of academic medicine.

The University of Pennsylvania Health System includes three hospitals — its flagship hospital, the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, rated one of the nation’s “Honor Roll” hospitals by U.S.News & World Report; Pennsylvania Hospital, the nation's first hospital; and Penn Presbyterian Medical Center — a faculty practice plan; a primary-care provider network; two multispecialty satellite facilities; and home care and hospice.