Jason Caron Named Sanford Bemidji President and CEO, Vows Community-Focused Care

Jason Caron, M.D., a long-time orthopedic surgeon with Sanford Health, was named president and CEO of the Sanford Bemidji region in a Sanford Health company announcement published July 28, 2025. The release named Caron as Karla Eischens’ successor after Eischens announced she will retire at the end of 2025, and Caron said he is “incredibly honored to step into this role” and called Bemidji his home.

Sanford’s July 28, 2025 news release noted Eischens has provided “more than two decades of service and leadership to northern Minnesota,” and other local reporting cites 21 years with Sanford. Eischens was credited with expanding the heart and vascular center, the PEAK Center and behavioral health access including the region’s first crisis center, and she said, “It has been the honor of my career to serve the Bemidji region and to work alongside such an exceptional team.”

Caron brings long-standing clinical and governance experience at Sanford Bemidji. Becker’s Hospital Review cited Caron’s LinkedIn profile showing he joined Sanford Bemidji Medical Center as a physician in 2004 and listing prior leadership roles including orthopedic department chair, surgery service line chair and chair of the Sanford Health of Northern Minnesota Board of Directors. In a LinkedIn post quoted by Becker’s, Caron wrote, “After more than 20 years in this hospital, one thing remains clear: rural health care works best when the community and the hospital support each other.” Local accounts also note Caron and his wife Angie have seven children and that he participates in mission work in Peru through Scalpel at the Cross.

Sanford and local outlets say Caron will gradually reduce his patient load during the leadership transition while continuing to see patients and remain clinically active. The Sanford release frames the succession as tied to Eischens’ retirement effective at the end of 2025; Becker’s reported that Caron’s LinkedIn says he “became CEO in January” without specifying the year. The Bemidji Pioneer published a Feb. 4, 2026 opinion column by Dr. Caron in which he refers to himself “now as president and CEO,” indicating he was serving in the role by early February 2026.

Eischens’ earlier career at Sanford included work as a pharmacist and director of pharmacy, the establishment of a home infusion pharmacy at the Joe Lueken Cancer Center Pharmacy, opening the Sanford Blackduck Pharmacy, and expansion of the regional 340B drug pricing program, details reported across local coverage. Sanford’s release praised Eischens as “deeply connected to the region” who “has championed the people, services and innovations that make high‑quality care accessible close to home.”

For contact or comment, the Bemidji Pioneer lists Jason Caron, MD, as president and CEO of Sanford Health’s Bemidji region with phone (218) 751-9746 and email jason.caron@sanfordhealth.org.